https://www.built.ioRSS for NodeThu, 21 Mar 2019 15:03:57 GMTThu, 21 Mar 2019 15:03:56 GMTThe world’s first computer was launched in 1946 and the smartphone was introduced in 1992. Since then, technology has only been growing smarter. Today, we cannot imagine our lives without it. Technology is transforming societies, economies, and the very core of how organizations do business. By 2020, worldwide internet users will grow to 4.1 billion and the number of connected devices will jump to 30.7 billion.

To stay relevant in today’s dynamic business environment, in addition to being connected with employees, customers, and shareholders, you must be aware of globally emerging trends. Technology cannot be ignored. Embracing new technologies and innovations with open arms can help you evade the risk of going out of business and drive success in your organization.

Often, a majority of organizations begin adopting technology at a rapid pace but achieve little to no success in accomplishing the desired outcomes. One of the most common reasons for this remains a lack of ability to adapt to change. A lot of enterprises fall behind in getting their teams to adopt and use the new technologies to their best ability.

So what steps can you take to ensure that all your teams get the maximum leverage out of the changes you are introducing?

Get your basics right

There is nothing more confusing and irksome for an employee than changing their style of working without proper reasoning. If the purpose of a new app, software or technology is not clear, it will pose a problem to your teams.

Prior to any implementation, it is important to consider this: How will the new technology support the company’s goals? Will it cause major changes to the current infrastructure and processes? How long will it take to be fully implemented and adopted?

Once you come up with the answers to these questions, you will be much closer to encouraging your employees in willingly embracing the changes ahead of them.

Introducing enterprise-wide automation

Change cannot be triggered by a simple on-off switch. To implement new systems and merge the digital with the physical, you need support and input from multiple teams and applications. The key areas that must be considered when transitioning from traditional to digital workplaces are the communication tools, productivity tools and the business tools used by every team in your organization. The ultimate goal must be to tie all these elements together in a way that it empowers the workforce by making them more productive.

Automation software can help here. It can optimize every business process and task, without requiring any manual intervention. In recent years, automation has become increasingly prevalent. It offers enterprises the ability to connect different platforms, devices, and applications to create a homogenous view of all business data, allowing them to gain actionable insights and make better decisions.

Automation has the power to revolutionize the way people work. It helps teams become more productive and customer-focused by inculcating a ‘digital-first’ mindset. With interconnected devices, employees can have 24/7 access to applications and associated data. They are free to decide where and when they want to work and be productive on their own terms, giving rise to a more collaborative and flexible working environment. This greatly simplifies and enhances the work experience for all teams, making them more open to technological changes. In essence, automation lies at the heart of every digital transformation journey.

Begin your digital transformation journey with Built.io

Built.io helps organizations optimize their workplaces to meet the changing demands of today’s digital business world. An intelligent iPaaS, it connects apps, devices, and on-premise systems to automate data exchange, workflows, and business processes. It comes with a visual and easy-to-use drag-and-drop interface that makes it simple for even business users to design and deploy multi-app workflows in no time. To help you get started, Built.io offers integrations with more than 180 third-party services and several ready-to-use templates in its workflow library. Log in now to have a look.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/here-is-how-organizations-can-adapt-to-the-changing-world-of-businesshttps://www.built.io/blog/here-is-how-organizations-can-adapt-to-the-changing-world-of-businessMon, 18 Mar 2019 00:00:00 GMTIf you are a marketer or a sales personnel, you know how important and helpful CRMs are on a day-to-day basis. Salesforce is one of those platforms which is largely used by enterprises to ease the team’s burden and improve the coordination within the company. ]]>https://www.built.io/blog/enterprises-streamline-your-processes-with-salesforce-integrationshttps://www.built.io/blog/enterprises-streamline-your-processes-with-salesforce-integrationsFri, 15 Mar 2019 00:00:00 GMTThe advent of big data has been disrupting organizations and bringing big changes in the digital landscape. By 2026, big data applications and analytics are projected to grow to $19.4B. For every organization, the main element of big data lies in finding out the patterns which can actually provide insights on business efficiency and customer behavior.

However, the problem is that some organizations are still finding it difficult to consolidate and interpret large volumes of data. Nearly, 55% B2B companies believe that the inability to merge data from a range of sources in a timely manner is holding them back from achieving business goals.

To successfully leverage data, along with investing in the right big data tools and applications, it is crucial to connect your big data applications with your enterprise and legacy systems. So how can an organization achieve this? The answer is automation. Enterprises can tackle Big Data with ‘Big Workflows’; built in an automation tool that helps them maximize available resources and streamline the data handling process.

Manage big data using automation

Automation helps organizations unify tools and applications in a way that the right data is always shared with the right people on time. It provides pre-built, tested logic that allows teams to focus on growth objectives, rather than writing code and testing workflows.

A Look at Big Data Workflow Automation

In the same way that Big Data involves large and complex sets of data, Big Data workflows are bigger, complex processes that help enterprises make sense of the data. The key feature that differentiates automation from manual data processing is its ability to transform data at lightning-quick speeds with zero errors. Many of the pitfalls commonly associated with big data projects can be minimized or removed completely with workflow automation.

For starters, an automation tool can help you with the following tasks:

Deliver data anywhere, anytime in the desired format

Load and validate data on demand

Replicate data and share it across platforms

Display data in real-time

Offer analytics in addition to the data

Identify data features to build a predictive analysis model

Send a notification when a system is updated

Query enormous networks

Generate giant maps

Schedule a workflow to run when required

and more!

Benefits of introducing automation in big data processes

1. Eliminate project bottlenecks

The more steps a data management process has, the greater is the likelihood of barriers emerging along the way. Additionally, the lack of a streamlined process can result in data duplication. Automation can help you tackle this by capturing and storing big data as it emerges — in any volume, velocity or variety. You can then share this data with different teams and across all your applications in real-time.

2. Reduce dependence on physical resources

If your employees are still viewing data by printing it out and reading the paperwork, it can cause a huge strain on their productivity. You can alleviate this situation by investing in an automation solution. It collates information from disparate sources, transforms it into a comprehensible format and distributes the reports to the appropriate teams online. Instead of storing physical documents in bulky filing cabinets, teams can simply pull up reports on their screens.

3. Transform data into insights

Data can be considered valuable only when it produces meaningful insights. With automation, organizations can easily incorporate big data into their business workflows and gain deep insights almost instantaneously. This means less time spent on preparing and integrating data, and more time for analyzing it. Automation creates a master dataset by combing all data into a single layer and offers businesses quick access to comprehensive dashboards and business intelligence reports.

4. Reduce complexity in all environments

Big data workflows usually consist of various steps and require multiple technologies deployed in different environments. The solution to this is creating a fused dataset using automation. Most automation solutions provide an agnostic platform, which supports on-premise, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments. It efficiently manages big data processes across different environments and provides the teams with a holistic view of all business data.

5. Improve the reliability of processes

Real-time monitoring of big data workflows can help minimize errors and service interruptions. An automation solution allows you to manage your entire big data workflow from the same screen. If something goes wrong, you immediately get notified about what happened and where it happened.

6. Better decision making

With the use of big data workflow automation, organizations can accelerate the decision-making process. It arms them with the right kind of data at the right time, preparing them to always stay one step ahead of industry peers. An automation solution can collect and structure data in a matter of minutes and consequently make it readily available for easy access. This allows teams to identify possible risks and weak areas, understand customer behavior, and optimize business strategies.

Removing big data complexity with Built.io

Built.io, a cloud-first workflow automation platform helps businesses fast-track the integration of big data projects. It connects disparate enterprise applications, databases, and platforms to support the orchestration of data from any information source.

Built.io provides integrations with more than 180 services and numerous ready-to-use templates, allowing you to scale your operations to accommodate hundreds of data flows. To learn more about how it can help you solve your big data challenges, sign up with us today.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/how-to-use-automation-to-optimize-big-data-projectshttps://www.built.io/blog/how-to-use-automation-to-optimize-big-data-projectsWed, 13 Mar 2019 00:00:00 GMTAmazon, eBay, and Walmart have become household names. Many players entered the industry with a dream to dominate the industry but not everyone could survive. Where some e-retailers have already quit, others are still struggling to make a mark.]]>https://www.built.io/blog/is-the-e-commerce-industry-surviving-because-of-ipaas-https://www.built.io/blog/is-the-e-commerce-industry-surviving-because-of-ipaas-Mon, 11 Mar 2019 00:00:00 GMTIf there is one thing that every team in an organization wishes they could avoid but still need to get done, the unanimous vote would be for repetitive, mundane and time-consuming tasks.

Manual tasks can be one of the most tedious and inefficient processes in the working world. Not only do they wear you out, but also waste precious time and slash your productivity. In fact, 22% of an employee’s time is spent on repetitive tasks. Moreover, when carrying out redundant work, an employee is likely to make 10 errors out of every 100 steps.

Fortunately, there is technology known as workflow automation that lets you automate these monotonous tasks and focus on work that actually matters. Organizations need to understand the importance of workflow automation and bring it into their daily business processes.

What is workflow automation and why is it necessary?

Workflow automation refers to the replacement of repetitive, manual tasks with automation. Several business processes are dominated by simple “if this, then that” scenarios, and require manual intervention to execute one function and trigger the next.

Using a workflow automation tool such as an iPaaS (Integration Platform as a Service), you can automate many of these if this, then that functions and free up your employees’ time. In short, any process that involves a series of sequential steps can be a good fit for automation.

To understand how this works, let us use a simple example.

Let’s say, you receive a support ticket from one of your customers requesting information about a particular product. Once an agent is assigned to this ticket, they usually have to sift through a mound of web pages, brochures or documents to find the right information and share it with the customer. More often than not, this is a query that they have previously worked on.

Although this is a simple process, it can turn into a daily task for your customer support team and take up much of their valuable time. Using automation, you can make this entire process quick, seamless and free of manual efforts. Workflow automation ensures that all the steps in this process come together smoothly based on a set of pre-defined rules and business logic.

How can workflow automation benefit your business?

A workflow automation platform digitizes business processes, allowing you to eliminate the “after effects of the mundane” - high operation costs, human errors, and delays. It enables application data to flow freely from person to person, system to device, cloud to on-premise, and so on to help your business move forward.

Almost every department in your organization can benefit from workflow automation. Whether it is marketing, sales, human resources, or finance, here is how automation can help you work smarter and better.

Saves time, capital and resources by simplifying business processes

Streamlines workload management

Simplifies asset tracking with a centralized database

Eliminates human errors

Enhances cross-functional collaboration

Boosts productivity

Shortens sales cycles

Increases process transparency and improves accountability

Power your business workflows with Built.io

Built.io, a best-in-class workflow automation iPaaS lets you easily automate and optimize all your business processes. It gives organizations the power to connect apps, devices and on-premise systems, enabling them to integrate and automate everything.

Whether simple or complex, using an automation tool such as Built.io, you can automate workflows with only clicks and zero code. It comes with a visual, drag-and-drop interface that helps teams design, execute and monitor customized workflows.

The iPaaS offers integrations with more than 180 services, each of which includes a set of triggers and actions. Teams can arrange and connect them as needed to automate daily, repetitive tasks.

Sign up with us today to get started or visit our library to have a look at some of our ready-to-use workflows.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/what-is-workflow-automationhttps://www.built.io/blog/what-is-workflow-automationWed, 06 Mar 2019 00:00:00 GMTIn an article published in October 2018, Android Police stated that Gmail has 1.5 billion active users which boils down to ‘one active Gmail account for every five people on the planet.’ ]]>https://www.built.io/blog/ready-to-use-gmail-integrations-for-enterpriseshttps://www.built.io/blog/ready-to-use-gmail-integrations-for-enterprisesMon, 04 Mar 2019 00:00:00 GMT2019 is going to be the year of the customer, yet again! We live in a customer-centric world where customers hop, skip and jump across different channels, leaving behind a wealth of data on each of them. Making sense of all this unstructured data living in multiple CRMs is no easy task. Data explosion is a real problem for marketers, who are struggling to find new ways of engaging and converting customers every day.

To engage consumers more effectively, marketers need to have accurate and real-time data. This can be possible only when the data scattered across multiple CRMs is continually synced into a single, cohesive unit.

Using automation, marketers can easily achieve this. Automation solutions such as iPaaS are extending the capabilities of marketers and helping them create personalized, targeted campaigns to attract and retain customers. Nearly 45% of activities performed by marketers can be automated using technology.

To learn more about how you can make the best of an iPaaS solution to achieve your marketing goals, let us first understand what an iPaaS.

What is an iPaaS?

iPaaS stands for Integration Platform as a Service. Simply put, it is an automation tool for connecting applications deployed in different environments. iPaaS can help marketing teams in integrating legacy on-premise systems with cloud applications, IoT devices, and big data, and provide them with a 360° view of the buyer’s journey. Typically, every iPaaS platform provides integrations with multiple services that allow a marketer to create customized workflows and automate tasks within minutes.

Need for iPaaS in Marketing

The growing demand for an effective tool to integrate martech applications is spearheading the adoption of integration platform as a service. iPaaS allows you to plug in multiple martech applications with the click of a button. Data flows in and out of the iPaaS through each application’s API. The end result allows you to smartly leverage data in a way that you are able to understand the customer journey, maximize your marketing funnel, analyze the ROI of your campaigns, and ultimately optimize your overall marketing strategy.

Unlock New Possibilities Through Smarter Automation

1) Improve data accuracy

Connecting disparate marketing tools through an iPaaS facilitates quick data integration and creates a single source of truth. This prevents the risks of duplicate and inaccurate data, which often lead to misinformed decisions. With real-time data synchronization, marketers can spend less time analyzing ‘which data is right?’ and more time on converting the information into actionable insights.

2) Simplify the integration process

iPaaS solutions offer a low-code, self-service integration platform that can be used by even non-technical people to create multi-step, multi-app workflows in minutes. This helps marketers eliminate project bottlenecks and reduces the dependency on IT teams.

3) Improve productivity

Time-saving is one of the biggest advantages offered by automation. Something as small as automating your social media posts can help you save more than 6 hours per week or you can automate the scheduling of meetings to save 80% more time.

4) Reduce time to market

Whether launching a new marketing campaign or introducing your latest product - time is of the essence and a critical competitive advantage in an overcrowded market. With iPaaS, marketers can quickly connect their marketing, business, and technical stacks. This creates a homogenous view of all the data and gives marketers the ability to deploy changes on the fly, resulting in faster time to market.

5) Align marketing and sales efforts

Integrating marketing and sales software can provide both the teams with a single view of the customer journey. With real-time data sharing, marketing and sales representatives can work concurrently with the same information and devise effective data-driven strategies to achieve the common goal of higher conversions.

6) Increase accountability

When it comes to choosing marketing software, marketers usually have to make the decision in conjunction with the IT team. When other teams get involved in data integration, it becomes unclear as to who is responsible for the results. Since iPaaS offers extensive self-service capabilities, even users with no coding experience can use the platform to build complex workflows and achieve their marketing goals. As a result, the accountability for marketing data integration, campaign implementation, and the ROI becomes more transparent.

7) Leverage scalability

iPaaS solutions offer high scalability and can handle large volumes of customer data. Marketers can integrate information from a wide range of sources and harmonize the resulting data sets into an immediately workable format. iPaaS swiftly moves data into marketing campaigns and sales pipelines, enabling marketing reps to orchestrate a guided customer journey across devices and digital channels.

8) Deliver value via legacy platforms

A lot of businesses are still apprehensive when it comes to embracing next-generation technologies for data management. The perceived risks and costs of migrating on-premise systems are usually what make them take a step back. Fortunately, iPaaS has a fix to this roadblock. It provides a cost-effective platform that continually connects on-premise systems to cloud environments, without requiring any manual data detangling. Marketers can work with the on-premise data on cloud as well as sync it with other cloud applications and devices.

Built.io - Your Data Integration Partner

Born in the cloud age, Built.io is an intelligent iPaaS that understands the needs of every digital marketer today. It connects apps, devices and on-premise systems using a simple drag-and-drop interface that helps marketers power their workflows and automate tasks in minutes.

The iPaaS provides integrations with more than 180 services including ActiveCampaign, HubSpot, MailChimp, Marketo, and several others. Further, it offers numerous ready-to-use workflows that enable you to nurture leads, convert them to customers, increase customer lifecycle, build and grow your brand, all from the same interface. Here is a list of some of our most popular marketing workflows.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/a-marketer-s-guide-to-leveraging-ipaas-in-2019https://www.built.io/blog/a-marketer-s-guide-to-leveraging-ipaas-in-2019Thu, 28 Feb 2019 00:00:00 GMTToday, digital technology is all the rage, transforming our personal and professional worlds. Businesses across the globe are prepping for an age of innovation in which different technologies are coming together to create exceptional customer experiences.

As customers become more digitally savvy, enterprises are beginning to rethink their strategies centering them around the customers’ journey. To deliver a truly connected and seamless experience to customers, enterprises need to leverage their applications and data residing in different environments. Data is a key enabler of digital transformation. However, most businesses struggle with disparate and conflicting information sets. To engage consumers more effectively, you need to have accurate, real-time and actionable data on your hands. An easy way around this is to sync all your applications and data into a single, cohesive unit using the power of automation.

Automation implies replacing manual tasks with software to quickly and efficiently accomplish business goals. It can be implemented in all departments of your organization, such as Human Resources, Sales, Marketing, IT, and Customer Support. The goal of automation is not just to automate your organizational workflows but to make complicated business processes simpler, shorter, and more systematized.

Integration platforms such as iPaaS (Integration Platform as a Service) can be utilized to introduce enterprise-wide automation in your organization. It binds together disparate applications, facilitates quick data exchange, and automates repetitive processes to support enterprises in optimally using their time, resources, and money.

Built.io - A next-generation iPaaS

Built.io, a cloud agnostic and hybrid iPaaS provides enterprises with a revolutionary way to tackle application integration, and accelerate through their digital transformation. Built.io’s integration platform as a service allows users to bring data from legacy systems, public and private clouds, mobile devices, and IoT into a centralized dashboard. Since it operates entirely on the cloud, Built.io requires no complex installation or maintenance procedures. Simply sign up and start automating.

Built.io offers broad connectivity with more than 180 services so you can design workflows tailored to your specific business needs. It also offers pre-built solutions, that is, a set of ready-to-use workflows for all areas of business.

If you would like to know more about how you can simplify your digital transformation journey with Built.io, have a look at our eBook: Accelerate Digital Transformation with iPaaS. It will offer you insights on how to take an integrated approach to business modernization and put your organization on the path to becoming a digitally connected, customer-centric business.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/accelerate-digital-transformation-with-ipaashttps://www.built.io/blog/accelerate-digital-transformation-with-ipaasFri, 22 Feb 2019 00:00:00 GMTThe Internet of Things (IoT) is ushering in a new era of digital transformation and changing the way organizations do business. It has already surpassed the world population in numbers. By 2020, the number of connected things is expected to increase to 20.4 billion and the IoT market is projected to reach 7.1 trillion dollars. Hence, it should be no surprise that businesses all over the globe are now scrambling to develop integration solutions that support these devices.

Integration in the IoT market

Before we get into the nitty-gritty of IoT integration, let us first have a look at what is IoT. The internet of things or IoT is a suite of intelligently connected devices that transfer data over a network without requiring any human intervention. Some of the most popularly used IoT devices are Fitbits, watches, smart televisions, electric meters, security systems, smart lights in homes and commercial environments, voice assistants, etc.

Businesses have tremendous faith in IoT. However, most enterprises begin their IoT journeys without understanding the integration challenges it will bring in the future. For starters, the sheer volume of data generated by IoT devices can sometimes be overwhelming. Further, the costs of developing an integration platform to address complex IoT projects can cause a huge dent in the organizational budget.

Although connecting on-premise and cloud applications with IoT devices can be tricky, it is necessary to create a holistic view of business and customer data.

Addressing IoT integration challenges with iPaaS

The complexity of IoT integration often surprises integration teams. It is unlike what enterprises generally deal with. As the business grows, the number of IoT devices also increases. The Internet of Things encompasses a large number of devices, a plethora of application programming interfaces (APIs), and a large volume of data. This data needs to be collected, processed, analyzed and distributed appropriately. Traditional integration platforms are not designed to work with such evolving needs of a modern enterprise. However, this can be easily achieved by implementing an iPaaS platform - a cloud service that facilitates smooth data exchange by connecting disparate systems, devices and databases.

Most IoT platforms already come with some embedded integration capabilities. While these built-in integration capabilities are enough for basic integration scenarios, building complex workflows and scaling up projects requires a sophisticated iPaaS solution.

An iPaaS offers organizations access to advanced integration capabilities and helps them implement multiple workflows and IoT projects. IoT services can be accessed via their APIs and this is essentially a default feature provided by every iPaaS. In addition to offering extensive connectivity with multiple services and a ready-to-use platform, iPaaS solutions provide several other features such as multiple user management, granular monitoring, and usage audit logs. This ensures seamless and real-time communication between your IoT services and devices and other applications.

How IoT can benefit from iPaaS

With iPaaS, you can achieve scalable success with your IoT projects. An iPaaS offers enterprises the ability to facilitate data integration between sensors, devices and enterprise systems, such that the ‘things’ can be leveraged to automate processes and enable quick data exchange. This can be best explained with the help of an example.

Suppose you use a smart speaker that uses the Google Assistant service. It lets you verbally request information and control other smart devices. Using an iPaaS, you can link it to your task management apps, notes, and calendars to simplify your day and boost productivity. The iPaaS retrieves data from the smart speaker, sends it to your CRM, and passes on that information to the customer, all from the same interface. It can even be utilized to extract data hosted on-premises. For businesses that have most of its information on-premise, iPaaS can be one of the most economical options to launch an IoT project.

This is why more and more enterprises are leaning towards iPaaS for meeting their integration requirements. The demand for iPaaS is being driven by the need for business agility, faster deployment, scalability, reduced costs, and self-provisioning. iPaaS enables optimum resource utilization and allows companies to quickly process large volumes of data from disparate sources, without having to invest in infrastructure. Further, the tools offered by an iPaaS platform are simple to use and easy to understand. Even business users with little to no programming knowledge can develop and manage IoT integrations within a couple of minutes.

In a nutshell, iPaaS offers extensive flexibility, while catering to the dynamic nature of an organization’s digital transformation needs.

Built.io - A next-gen iPaaS for IoT integration

Before entering the iPaaS journey, businesses need to make a list of expectations from implementing an iPaaS. This includes clarity on the current IT infrastructure and use cases that the business is looking to address. Choosing the right integration partner can play a key role in alleviating your integration challenges, even if your IoT strategy is still in its infancy.

With our proprietary iPaaS, Built.io, you can rapidly deploy complex IoT integrations. The platform cuts integration time in half by connecting the data from your IoT devices with your cloud and on-premise applications, allowing you to permanently clear data silos.

Currently, Built.io offers connectivity with several IoT services including Amazon Alexa, Cisco Meraki, Fitbit, Gimbal, IBM Watson, LIFX, Nest, Philips Hue, and Tesla. If a particular service is not yet available with us, you can use an API to connect it with Built.io. The iPaaS platform offers a visual drag-and-drop interface that empowers users to manage all their integration needs easily, without having to depend on the IT team.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/a-guide-to-solving-iot-integration-challenges-with-ipaashttps://www.built.io/blog/a-guide-to-solving-iot-integration-challenges-with-ipaasWed, 20 Feb 2019 00:00:00 GMTResearch and Markets, in its report, has mentioned that large companies with around 10,000 employees are generating more than 10 million dollars a year with the help of iPaaS. You must be wondering how a simple technology like application integration is helping businesses maximize profits. The answer is by accelerating digital transformation.

Let us now see how iPaaS is helping large companies generate millions of dollars by speeding up the digital transformation process. Before that let us, in brief, understand what is digital transformation.

What is Digital Transformation?

WhatIs.com explains digital transformation in the simplest possible terms. According to the online publication,

“Digital transformation (DX) is the reworking of the products, processes, and strategies within an organization by leveraging current technologies.”

This explanation makes it crystal clear why iPaas and digital transformation go hand-in-hand. iPaaS is one of those key technologies which enterprises are utilizing to save time spent on repetitive but crucial tasks like calculating leaves and processing salaries every month. Have you ever imagined the amount of time Accounts and HR teams save when salary processing is automated? If your answer is no, then you must immediately sign up for our FREE Individual Plan and test workflow automation yourself.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/large-companies-are-generating-above-10-million-dollars-a-year-using-ipaas-surveyhttps://www.built.io/blog/large-companies-are-generating-above-10-million-dollars-a-year-using-ipaas-surveyMon, 18 Feb 2019 00:00:00 GMTTwitter is one of the most popular social media networks today, used by individuals and organizations alike. As per Alexa, it is currently ranked at the 11th position internationally, and by 2020, the social network’s audience size is projected to reach 275 million monthly active users worldwide.]]>https://www.built.io/blog/manage-your-twitter-like-a-pro-using-these-powerful-integrationshttps://www.built.io/blog/manage-your-twitter-like-a-pro-using-these-powerful-integrationsFri, 15 Feb 2019 00:00:00 GMTProductivity and employee engagement are paramount to a company’s sales and business growth. Organizations are constantly looking for new technology to create a workforce that is more productive, more efficient, and more innovative. Thankfully, there is no scarcity of tools, primarily as-a-service applications, to perform one’s daily tasks and make life a little simpler.]]>https://www.built.io/blog/here-s-how-to-increase-team-productivity-using-automationhttps://www.built.io/blog/here-s-how-to-increase-team-productivity-using-automationMon, 11 Feb 2019 00:00:00 GMTIf there's one daily chore that could use some automation, it is undoubtedly managing your emails. No matter how many times a day you respond to the emails in your inbox, sometimes it just doesn’t stop bringing in new things. In fact, a survey revealed that on an average, an employee spends 47,000 hours on email over the course of their career. Irrespective of whether you receive countless emails every day or a couple emails in a month, they can be a huge distraction while you’re at work and impact your productivity.]]>https://www.built.io/blog/automate-your-emails-using-these-integrationshttps://www.built.io/blog/automate-your-emails-using-these-integrationsFri, 08 Feb 2019 00:00:00 GMTMarketing is a demanding job, from managing campaigns to website redesigns. Working in marketing means working with multiple tools across multiple platforms and mediums. Managing all of these without losing sight of the bigger picture can get difficult. Is there a more effective way to manage these tasks?

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/7-workflow-automations-for-sales-and-marketing-teamshttps://www.built.io/blog/7-workflow-automations-for-sales-and-marketing-teamsWed, 06 Feb 2019 00:00:00 GMTCisco Meraki, one of the most prominent players in cloud-based IT domain works with thousands of small businesses and global enterprises in over 100 countries to help them save time and money. Cisco Meraki offers these businesses a comprehensive suite of easy-to-use yet powerful solutions that enable them to reduce operating costs and rapidly implement IT initiatives across the organization. From wireless, switching, security, communications, EMM, intelligent network insights, endpoint management, and security cameras, their portfolio continues to grow. The best part is that all of these can be easily managed from a single feature-rich and intuitive, web-based dashboard.

To further simplify and enhance your experience of using Cisco Meraki, Built.io offers several intelligent automations that let you quickly automate a number of activities and spend the time saved on high-priority tasks. Built.io also offers you the option to add, delete or retrieve data and pass it on to other apps, devices, and services. You can even make changes to your network equipment - right from your Built.io canvas. This eliminates the need to switch between multiple interfaces and reduces human errors.

Get into the flow and start automating your tasks.

Here is a list of all the Cisco Meraki actions currently available on Built.io. Using these, you can build customized workflows tailored to your business needs and get work done faster.

Add Contact in a Network

Add VLAN in a Network

Delete VLAN in a Network

Force Check-in a Set of Devices

Get Network Traffic Data

List Air Marshal Scan Results

List Clients of a Device

List Contacts in a Network

List Devices Enrolled in an SM Network

List Devices in a Network

List Networks in an Organization

List Organizations

List VLANs in a Network

Lock a Set of Devices

In addition to the actions listed above, you can also create your own actions using the Custom Action Builder.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/automate-cisco-meraki-tasks-in-minutes-and-free-up-your-timehttps://www.built.io/blog/automate-cisco-meraki-tasks-in-minutes-and-free-up-your-timeMon, 04 Feb 2019 00:00:00 GMTForbes claims that “84% of companies fail at digital transformation.” Today, when the world is adopting digital at lightning speed, enterprises cannot afford to fail at digital transformation.

Slowly but surely, every company is trying its best to adopt best practices in order to increase productivity and maximize profits. If you are planning to go digital, make sure you are among the 26% of companies that have successfully implemented digital, and not among the 84% who have failed at it. Here’s how to get started:

Have a full-proof strategy

Enterprises fail at digital transformation because they think that a website and a few social media channels equate to successful digital transformation. It’s more than a few tweets, a blog, and a website.

For a successful digital transformation, the way your organization functions needs to be changed. The traditional methods of working need to be changed. The way your employees are spending their time needs to be changed, and where your employees are investing their time needs to be changed.

Combine all the elements mentioned above. Have a powerful presence on the digital platforms as well as change the way your organization is working. Automate repetitive tasks. Let technology take the burden off your employees’ shoulders so that they can concentrate on the most important tasks.

Have a leader who understands digital

You cannot expect for digital to work you unless you have leaders who work for digital. This does not refer to leaders working towards digital presence and strategies. You can have a team of a hundred people brainstorming on how to do it right. But if none of them understands how to subtly but effectively implement those strategies, then no ideas are going to help the organization progress. Instead, have at least one leader who knows digital inside out and then tiptoe towards the transformation.

Focus on internal communication

IDC has predicted that “70 percent of digital transformation initiatives will ultimately fail because of insufficient collaboration, integration, sourcing or project management.”

Insufficient collaboration, integration, sourcing, and project management are all outcomes of poor internal communication and coordination. When you hire experts, make sure the strategy is well communicated with the wider organization. Make sure the new and the old collaborate and work together towards a single goal.

Don’t rush into it

Many companies expect overnight success. That’s not going to happen. Adopt one strategy at a time or a handful of strategies that work together. To begin with, you can start with workflow automation and application integrations. This will automate repetitive tasks giving your employees more time to concentrate on other parts of digital transformation. Also, the strategy you implement initially may not give you the desired results. You will have to keep experimenting and then mix and match all the bits and pieces that have worked in the past.

Imitating competitors

Whenever a company starts a new project or an endeavor, it always studies its competitors. Though it proves to be a smart move most of the times, it does not always help. There is no guarantee that what is working for others will also work for you. Also, imitating competitors will never let you create a unique identity.

Don’t shoot for the moon

Every business’ ultimate goal is increased sales. But that’s the finish line. Let the goals be such that they gradually lead to an increase in sales. Start by streamlining internal processes, improving collaboration and internal communication. Steadily, move on to building customer relationships. Then, jump onto the digital bandwagon with a final strategy comprised of what you have learned along the way.

Digital Transformation is not rocket science. If you hire the right staff and invest in the right platforms, this new-age style of working will quicken the pace of your success.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/6-tips-to-successfully-bring-in-digital-transformationhttps://www.built.io/blog/6-tips-to-successfully-bring-in-digital-transformationFri, 01 Feb 2019 00:00:00 GMTMost leading organizations use DevOps for shorter and frequent development cycles, reduced deployment failures, and reduced recovery times. These core tasks take up DevOps engineers’ most of the time, leaving less time for other menial, yet equally important tasks such as data backups and creating and managing incident tickets. One way to address this problem is to automate these repetitive tasks. ]]>https://www.built.io/blog/4-time-saving-automation-workflows-to-make-heroes-out-of-mere-devops-mortalshttps://www.built.io/blog/4-time-saving-automation-workflows-to-make-heroes-out-of-mere-devops-mortalsWed, 30 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMTSelling is a complex process with a series of repetitive steps; from identifying prospects, setting up meetings and educating them about your product, creating tasks, negotiating the contract, and eventually closing the deal. To be able to sell efficiently and close more deals, most businesses make use of CRM systems to help them keep track of these stages, automate certain sales activities, and maintain a well-organized sales pipeline.]]>https://www.built.io/blog/keep-track-of-new-pipedrive-deals-with-asana-tasks-and-trello-cardshttps://www.built.io/blog/keep-track-of-new-pipedrive-deals-with-asana-tasks-and-trello-cardsMon, 28 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMTOver the last few years, the internet has revolutionized the way we do things. It has seamlessly connected people globally with the aid of a trusted protocol named, HTTP. Almost since the emergence of the internet, HTTP has been the preferred protocol for websites and applications - big and small. However, in spite of its absolute dominance over all things internet, HTTP still has an Achilles heel, IoT.

HTTP and IoT: One size doesn’t fit all

With the introduction of IoT, the rules of how we interact over the internet have suddenly changed. What has always worked for applications and websites doesn’t work for IoT. HTTP cannot effectively fulfill the specific requirements of these devices such as:

Support for one-to-many communication

Listening for events

Lightweight data packets which ensure that the limited memory of IoT devices is not exhausted

Minimum or no data loss

This is where IoT protocols that cater to these specific requirements come into play. Some of the leading IoT protocols are MQTT, AMQP, CoAP. While these protocols tick most of the boxes, they remain highly exclusive to developers who can use them for their IoT integrations.

A simple gateway that could listen to events on broadcasting or protocol servers and respond accordingly without the development effort was still missing, that is, until now.

IoT, Meet Listeners

As part of our goal to continuously challenge the status quo and democratize integration, we are happy to announce Listeners, the first-of-its-kind service, to help you bring out the untapped potential of your IoT devices.

The Listeners enable you to listen to the events of your IoT devices using the Built.io Flow platform. As mentioned above, you can use any IoT messaging protocol for communicating with your IoT devices. Listeners use in-memory sockets to listen to these protocol servers for events and fetch event responses.

How Listeners Work

Let’s say you are using PubNub for inter-IoT device communication. To create a workflow that triggers whenever any message is published on the PubNub channel associated with the IoT devices, you can set up a PubNub Listener on Built.io Flow.

As soon as you register the Listener, a dedicated in-memory socket is created and it starts listening to the specified PubNub channel. After this, whenever an event occurs on the PubNub channel, the socket sends the event response data in the binary format—which makes it very lightweight and hence, ideal for the IoT devices—to the Built.io Flow server. The Built.io Flow server then uses this data to trigger your workflow.

It is simple, fast, secure, and most importantly, requires only a few seconds of your time.

Features

No maintenance overhead. All Listeners are developed and maintained by Built.io.

So start using Listeners and take your IoT integrations to the next level. If you want us to build a specific Listener or have any questions, drop us a line at support-flow@built.io.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/introducing-listeners-gamechanger-for-iot-integrationshttps://www.built.io/blog/introducing-listeners-gamechanger-for-iot-integrationsFri, 25 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMTThe order-to-payment process is the lifeblood of all organizations, drawing the line between the success and failure of a business. Although it seems to be simple and straightforward, it is a rather complex process, as it involves the entire cycle of different departments, processes, applications, vendors, suppliers, and a wealth of data.]]>https://www.built.io/blog/take-control-of-end-to-end-order-management-with-automationhttps://www.built.io/blog/take-control-of-end-to-end-order-management-with-automationWed, 23 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMTEnterprise cloud applications are the cornerstone to inspire modern ways of working, while also keeping your customers and employees happy. These applications help teams streamline business processes, save time and create better customer experiences. However, for a business to truly make measurable progress, it is crucial for these applications to seamlessly communicate with each other.]]>https://www.built.io/blog/keep-pipedrive-and-salesforce-records-in-sync-using-these-integrationshttps://www.built.io/blog/keep-pipedrive-and-salesforce-records-in-sync-using-these-integrationsMon, 21 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMTIntegration and automation do not always have to be complex or require integration expertise, just to eliminate some of your manual tasks. In fact, with the phenomenal growth of new-age technologies, setting up a variety of integrations has become easier than ever and requires very little time and cost. As most digitally mature organizations would attest, using technology to automate repetitive tasks allows employees to focus on moving the needle forward.]]>https://www.built.io/blog/5-integrations-you-can-set-up-in-2-minutes-or-lesshttps://www.built.io/blog/5-integrations-you-can-set-up-in-2-minutes-or-lessFri, 18 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMTWhat is Digital Transformation and why is it the talk of the town?

Digital Transformation is adapting to the changing world by adopting the latest technologies that help you evolve digitally.

Companies are embracing digital transformation at an ever-increasing rate because it drives efficiencies and opens up new lines of business. Within each company, this evolution is driven by leadership but, requires buy-in from every level of the organization to be successful.

Speaking of evolution, with the advent of digital, homes are getting ‘smarter’ and enterprises are getting noticeably ‘sharper.’ How? With the help of advanced tools and technologies.

As John Chambers, Executive Chairman at Cisco System states, “at least 40% of all businesses will die in the next 10 years if they don’t figure out how to change their entire company to accommodate new technologies.”

Reasons why enterprises should go digital:

1) Improves operational efficiency

2) Creates greater connectivity

3) Boosts revenues

4) Improves decision making

5) Improves reach and customer satisfaction

6) Simplifies businesses processes

Why Digital Transformation is Unavoidable for Enterprises?

Amazon is a great example of why enterprises should merge digital with traditional means of managing business operations. From a mail-order bookstore to an e-commerce giant, its journey has been extraordinary. But, how did Amazon achieve such massive success?

Its success can be partly attributed to the timely adoption of digital techniques and tactics.

Below are some of the digital transformation trends that, if utilized correctly, can change your organization’s success story.

1. Internet Of Things

In 2013, Gartner had predicted that “the Internet of Things installed base will grow to 26 billion units by 2020.” Furthermore, the report states that,

“Enterprises will make extensive use of IoT technology, and there will be a wide range of products sold into various markets, such as advanced medical devices; factory automation sensors and applications in industrial robotics; sensor motes for increased agricultural yield; and automotive sensors and infrastructure integrity monitoring systems for diverse areas, such as road and railway transportation, water distribution and electrical transmission.”

When we say IoT, we speak of tools and technologies that are making their way into organizations as a part of ‘connected things.’ This includes analytics, edge computing, and 5G. No enterprise can transform into a digital company until it utilizes the benefits that the aforementioned offers.

2. Artificial Intelligence

We have tapped into the power of Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant and customer service chatbots - all of which is a small part of Artificial Intelligence. However, AI is much more than this. Automation and Robotics are the other realms of AI, which have already made their way into our daily lives and are transforming the way human beings work. In the near future, this technology is expected to evolve further and help enterprises grow at lightning speed.

3. Big Data

According to a report published by the International Data Corporation, the big data market is estimated to grow to $102 billion by 2019. Big data is not simply about the collection of data but about utilizing it correctly. If done right, big data can help enterprises safeguard their online reputation with the help of big data tools that allow sentiment analysis. In addition to that, big data also helps enterprises to understand market conditions by analyzing what the customers are buying and enables them to restructure their product strategies to meet the dynamic market demands. This, in turn, helps boost profits and cut down losses.

More than gaining a competitive edge, adopting these technologies, today, is about staying in the game. By failing to do so, your business may face the risk of becoming obsolete. Make sure you leverage the power of digital to the fullest and use it to win new customers as well as retain the existing ones.

One of the ways to transform digitally is by adopting integration and implementing automation in your processes.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/what-is-digital-transformation-why-is-it-unavoidable-for-enterprises-https://www.built.io/blog/what-is-digital-transformation-why-is-it-unavoidable-for-enterprises-Wed, 16 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMTAt Built.io, we are committed to constantly improving our product and helping you boost productivity in the process. Today, we are happy to announce two new features that will save your time on simple—but required—tasks so that you can focus on critical ones.

Here are the highlights of this week’s release:

Clone Projects in a Matter of Seconds

You can now create a duplicate of any project—and the workflows associated with it—with a single mouse click. This eliminates the need to manually copy multiple workflows from one project to another.

All of the workflows are inactive by default. Just re-activate and re-authorize the workflows, and start using them as you would normally do.

Faster Payments with Autofilled Credit Cards Details

Now, whenever you purchase a new plan for your organization or upgrade an existing one, your credit card details will be saved securely on the Built.io platform. On all your subsequent transactions, these details will be autofilled in the payment page, ensuring a smoother and quicker process.

Give these features a try and let us know what you think. If you have any questions, drop us a line at support-flow@built.io.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/do-more-in-less-time-with-the-latest-built-io-flow-featureshttps://www.built.io/blog/do-more-in-less-time-with-the-latest-built-io-flow-featuresMon, 14 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMTIn the ever-evolving age of SaaS and digital products, technology offers incredible opportunities to organizations. They are free to experiment with a myriad of applications before they zero down on the best one that is tailored to their business needs. However, utilizing a host of solutions across different business processes and teams results in a complex infrastructure and data discrepancies. So, how can an organization with such a diverse application stack still deliver the best customer experience? The answer is simple – through integration.

Seamless integration is the next big thing

Today, smart integration is essential to stay competitive and respond to dynamic market demands. Integration solutions not only connect disparate applications and automate the movement of data but also orchestrate a variety of actions from these applications automatically. They create easy access to information and make it available in real-time while ensuring high levels of data security and governance.

With automated data transfer turning into a key component of integration architecture, organizations are replacing traditional integration strategies with a data-driven, one-to-many hub model. Extending their integration capabilities is helping enterprises to quickly switch between systems and maintain control over their brand experiences. Rapid cloud adoption and acceptance of open source as the favored approach to enterprise software is further fueling the growth of integration middleware.

iPaaS for next-generation integration needs

Prior to integrated systems, organizations had to make the difficult choice of working with applications that offered some integration capabilities but may have not been their first choice. However, today, they are working in tandem with integration service providers to create an open-ended infrastructure, giving their teams the ability to mix and match different services, applications, and devices to create highly customized integrations.

Integration platforms such as iPaaS are increasingly being adopted by enterprises and are set to become the preferred choice for all integration projects. An iPaaS aligns siloed applications to facilitate smooth data exchange, allowing organizations to respond faster to technology and business changes. It automates repetitive processes, streamlines business operations, and reduces IT complexity, through a no-code approach.

Less manual work for employees and the system creates the net effect of lowering operating costs and boosting productivity. For businesses looking to gain all the benefits of a connected enterprise, while also simplifying operations and reducing costs, iPaaS is the perfect solution.

What is waiting in the future of enterprise integration?

In the next few years, integration platforms will bring a paradigm shift in the way organizations function and provide them with numerous growth opportunities. Businesses that have not already invested in integration technology will begin hunting for solutions that offer advanced orchestration capabilities and omnipresent customer data in a consolidated system. While today’s modern teams are building strategies to connect and use the best of the breed, specialized SaaS applications, the modern teams of tomorrow will focus on dealing with data in a transparent and secure way to build a new level of trust with their customers. Enterprise-grade integration solutions will play a crucial role in making this a reality.

If you are looking for an integration partner, have a look at Built.io Flow, a strong, next-generation integration platform that offers numerous capabilities for different B2B and B2C scenarios, including a drag and drop interface, pre-built integration templates, Connector Builder, integration lifecycle management, and more. The platform helps individuals with zero technical skills to turn into citizen integrators and build ad hoc integrations. Leading enterprises are using this solution to deliver premium digital experiences and make their infrastructure future-ready. Sign up today!

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/how-integration-is-going-to-be-a-game-changer-for-enterpriseshttps://www.built.io/blog/how-integration-is-going-to-be-a-game-changer-for-enterprisesTue, 08 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMTBusiness Process Automation (BPA), also known as workflow automation is the automation of complex and repetitive tasks through the integration of applications and web services. Gartner defines it as, ]]>https://www.built.io/blog/10-tasks-you-can-automate-with-built-io-flow-to-increase-productivity-and-profitabilityhttps://www.built.io/blog/10-tasks-you-can-automate-with-built-io-flow-to-increase-productivity-and-profitabilityMon, 07 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMTA consistent sales pipeline and the ability to hit the revenue target begins with good lead management. Generating new leads is vital to increase revenue. Most companies already know this and thus, have implemented popular lead funneling systems to simplify the lead management process.]]>https://www.built.io/blog/receive-real-time-updates-in-cisco-webex-teams-for-leads-created-on-marketo-and-sugarcrmhttps://www.built.io/blog/receive-real-time-updates-in-cisco-webex-teams-for-leads-created-on-marketo-and-sugarcrmFri, 04 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMTIt’s 2019 and by now, businesses have acknowledged the power of digital transformation. The traditional ways of strategy planning, marketing, business enhancement, and customer engagement are now being replaced by digital mediums that brings all the customers and businesses on to the same page.

Unsurprisingly, it’s not just the businesses that have increased the focus on digital mediums, because their target customers increasingly rely on digital communication. Today, the way a customer communicates and engages has fundamentally changed due to the growing popularity of social media, live support on websites, email marketing, and more. As a result, this has not only made gathering customer data complex but, has also challenged both product development and marketing teams.

Weaving new inbound interaction techniques with today’s customer journey have become a necessity to keep track of disengaged and inactive customers, especially those who ‘unsubscribe’ from all communication. As customers become more digitally savvy, businesses need to rethink the customers’ journey for superior interactions, better engagement, increased sales, and retention.

A shift in customer behavior

If you are leveraging a CRM tool, the first thing that you will want to investigate is the online traffic for your product and website. In 2017, according to Statista, consumers made 1.66 billion purchases worldwide, which accounted for 2.3 trillion dollars in revenue for online businesses. Statista also claimed that the online purchase projection will continue to grow as much as 4.48 trillion dollars by 2021.

As for social media engagement, in 2017, nearly 2.46 billion customers reached out via social media to companies for product support and information. Based on these statistics, it is clear that businesses must focus on their online behavior, platforms, availability, and touch points to match a customers’ preferences. This means being available across social media platforms as well as traditional support channels like email or phone support.

Identifying avoidable customer attrition

As customers’ digital personas become more diverse, the margin for error has shrunk so much so that even a small marketing glitch or mistimed email may turn potential customers away from your brand. When it comes to supporting—both mobile and desktop—due to irrelevant responses, nearly 42% of customers avoid using these support channels. Additionally, nearly 89% of customers stop using a product because of slow load times, lack of efficient support, and incorrect guidance. This creates another issue for companies, if a customer is unhappy about an interaction or product, they will turn to social media and publicly broadcast their opinions instead of working with traditional support channels to resolve the issue.

On that note, here are some solutions to help keep your customers engaged:

1. The customer handoff

When handing a customer off to another team, things like tickets, logs, and emails are often lost or mismanaged. A thorough customer handoff from one person to the next is crucial for consistent customer experience. The easiest way to ensure that all relevant information is transferred is to automate the process. Employing a robust Integration Platform as a Service or, iPaaS can help you automate these processes so that you aren’t reliant on manual data transfers. For instance, an iPaaS can help you automatically integrate data from Salesforce, Zendesk, and Office 365 into a single dashboard, allowing you to view and respond to open tickets while seeing a complete picture of your customers account and interactions across your organization.

2. Project management

Project management systems like JIRA or Trello let you track the progress of projects and tasks in a single panel to simplify the management for each release or customer. By using a single system as the source of truth, you can bring team members from across departments into a single collaboration tool. This improves collaboration across teams and enables them to efficiently manage projects. In addition to bringing team members into a single tool, you can automatically pull data from applications across your organization into the tool to provide context for bugs and deadlines.

3. Enhance customer experience

It’s important to connect data from all of your customer touchpoints, from social media to your CRM tool to ensure a consistent, omnichannel customer experience for each interaction. iPaaS empowers businesses to integrate data from disparate applications, services, and devices in one place, offering a 360° view of the customer.

It’s been years and customers are well-aware of services through webinars, ebooks, infographics, and online forums. As technologies are updating and so as customers, businesses need to re-shape their customer journey to empower their digital transformation.

As technology continues to evolve, so are the customers - who are now aware of their impact on a brands image. Reaching out to business has become easier than ever! It has become important than ever for businesses to focus on their customer journey strategies to ensure continued success.

4. Streamline internal communications

Proper internal communication among teams helps to keeps everyone updated on issues that a customer faces. By using iPaaS automation, you’ll not only be able to share all the information with everyone in real-time, but it also reduces the dependency on long email chains. Connect your CRM, ticket management, and project management tool to a collaboration tool like Slack, using Flow to automate escalation notifications and cross-team communication.

If you're looking for a technology partner to accelerate your digital transformation, drop us a line at support-flow@built.io.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/rethinking-the-customer-journey-in-the-digital-agehttps://www.built.io/blog/rethinking-the-customer-journey-in-the-digital-ageWed, 02 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMTApplication integration has become a game changer in the digital age, where organizations are striving to identify and deploy the right technologies at the right time. The traditional approach of unidirectional, point-to-point integration does not work well with new-age technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT), restricting the agility of the business to react to market dynamics. Consequently, enterprise integration is adapting to this new way of doing business.

Modern enterprise integration is now coupled with DevOps, microservices, AI, and other technologies, which make life easier for developers, businesses, and customers alike. With the increasing adoption of cloud and IoT applications, rise in hybrid integration, and deployment of data-centric systems, the future of enterprise integration looks promising.

So what's next in the integration space?

Increased hybrid integration

As cloud services continue to be commoditized, enterprises will increasingly turn to hybrid integration. Hybrid integration is a combination of on-premise systems and cloud applications. It is the go-to approach for companies that want to modernize their legacy systems and avoid the risk and cost of entirely switching to the cloud.

Focus on business process integration

The usage of cloud-based integration solutions will surge as enterprises seek to connect and automate their business processes. A report by Transparency Market Research states that the global market for workflow automation is likely to reach a value of $1.456 billion by 2025. Using business process integration and automation, enterprises will empower teams to be more productive, all while using the existing resources. The integration solution will not only help them eliminate data silos and create better collaboration between all stakeholders but also enhance the end-customer’s experience. Organizations that connect business processes with technology exceed average sector performance by at least 15%.

Real-time data sharing

Sharing critical data with stakeholders in real-time will continue to be a high priority for businesses. Over the next three years, 71% of enterprises globally predict that their investments in data and analytics will accelerate. With real-time data sharing, all stakeholders will have access to the same data exactly when they need it.

Integration service providers that offer real-time data synchronization between desktops, laptops, handheld devices, and the like will assume an increasingly important role, specifically for enterprises in the e-commerce landscape. Implementing data-driven strategies will help organizations to be 23 times more likely to acquire customers, 6 times as likely to retain customers, and 19 times as likely to be profitable as a result.

Integration of chatbots to support m-Commerce

96% of businesses believe that chatbots are here to stay. Chatbots are being actively used in eCommerce and require real-time data to deliver good customer experience. Using integration middleware, enterprises can connect chatbots to mobile applications and other databases, both on-premise and cloud, to gather the data scattered across various departments and systems. Integration of chatbots will help businesses to understand their customers better and provide an exponential boost to mCommerce. Within the next three years, nearly 80% of businesses will have implemented some form of chatbot automation.

IoT to dominate industry-wide

The Internet of Things (IoT) is no longer a buzzword but our present reality. New applications and devices are flooding the IoT space. In fact, it is estimated that by 2020, there would be 20.4 billion IoT devices, with a growing demand for real-time data and insights. Consequently, IoT will bring an essential change in the scale of integration and make it imperative for businesses to connect their intelligent devices and applications to the existing IT infrastructure. Using integration solutions such as iPaaS, organizations will collect and analyze device data in real-time, making it one of the most efficient ways to leverage IoT.

Adoption of ‘bring your own device’ (BYOD) policy

24x7 availability is a key feature offered by digital-first businesses, which is why most organizations require employees to use their personal handheld devices for performing multiple business functions. Business applications are connected to the company’s cloud server and employees are then provided access to these applications on their devices via simple user authentication. As businesses continue to expand the scope of their services and employee roles evolve, BYOD is going to become a force well into the future. It will support organizations to increase efficiency, improve work time flexibility, and boost cloud adoption.

Real-time API-driven integration

Cloud services, mobile applications, wearables, all use APIs to share data with each other. Next-generation enterprises have acknowledged the importance of APIs for application integration, and this trend will continue to develop in the light of cloud, mobile, and IoT driving an organization’s digital transformation. Real-time data integration between API-centric applications will gain momentum as more service providers open their APIs to external developers and utilize iPaaS to embed APIs into their own solution.

Rise of iPaaS

As enterprises continue adapting to the sheer volume, velocity, and different formats of data, the adoption of cloud-based integration solutions such as iPaaS are expected to go north. Market analysts have estimated that the iPaaS market will grow to $2,998.3 million by 2021, at a CAGR of 41.5%, owing to its scalability, reduced TCO, efficient API management, and ability to connect and run multiple applications concurrently. iPaaS extends self-service capabilities even to non-technical users, allowing them to easily connect services and applications. Organizations that incorporate iPaaS in their integration strategy are more likely to be successful in their digital transformation initiatives.

Collaboration of SaaS and iPaaS Service Providers

Improving product stickiness has become a challenge with an increasing number of software vendors offering the same type of product in a different packaging. To stand out amongst this crowd and provide better value to customers, more SaaS vendors will approach iPaaS providers to extend their solution’s integration capabilities. Connecting to an iPaaS will offer their customers rich and extensive integration opportunities with other SaaS applications on that iPaaS. Integrations built using an iPaaS can be made up and running in minutes and will help developers save time spent on writing custom code while offering the full benefit of the cloud to end-users.

To sum up, change is imperative for enterprises to stay aligned with the industry trends and prepare for global competition. As the number of systems, applications, and devices grows, organizations will need to restructure their integration strategy, as it will have a direct impact on their business insights and customer experience.

If it's your mom’s birthday, it finds the nearest gift shop and sends her a gift; or it informs you that you are running out of your kid’s favorite cereal and the nearest store has an offer on the same, places an order for home delivery, or it simply asks you whether you would like to hear the songs from the latest album of your favorite band as soon as you start your car.

This future is not far. It may soon become a reality. Thanks to AI, the ingenious technology.

One segment that is efficiently harnessing the superpowers of AI is voice-controlled devices.

Apple (Siri), Amazon (Alexa), Google (Google assistance and Google home), and Microsoft (Cortana) are some of the major players who are relying on AI to power their digital assistants or smart speakers. These digital assistants use natural language recognition to understand voice commands and create speech patterns to generate responses, both of which are on a par with trained human professionals. In the recent Google I/O 2018 event, we got a glimpse of what digital assistants powered by AI can be capable of with Google Duplex.

Since the popularity of digital assistants has been growing steadily for the past few years and is expected to grow exponentially over the coming years, it becomes necessary to identify what’s being done right and what needs more attention as far as AI-voice integration is concerned.

Advancements

1. Data search

Searching for data has never been this easy. Utter a few keywords to your digital assistant, and it will return the relevant information in a few seconds. It’s quick, easy, and most of the times, efficient. You may argue that you can search for data using your cell phones or laptops too, but we can all agree that simply asking a question feels more intuitive than typing it out. Also, it keeps your hands free to do other tasks!

2. Task management

Let’s say, you are on your way to an important meeting and are likely to reach late. In order to speed up things (and do some damage control), you can use your voice assistant to call your colleague and inform them to take over till you reach, get traffic updates to select best available routes, set reminder to check on the report you will need later in the day. All of this and more can be done in a matter of a few minutes using voice assistants.

Moreover, with the unveiling of Alexa for Business that can check calendars, set meetings, reorder supplies, and initiate video conference calls for your employees, Amazon has paved a way to move voice assistants from homes to workspaces.

3. Shopping

Another emerging segment that’s quickly flourishing is voice-based shopping. Thanks to the voice assistants. As per the market research by OC&C Strategy Consultants, voice shopping is set to jump to $40 billion by 2022. Right now, voice-based shopping is majorly restricted to ordering goods online, but we may see voice assistants going beyond that in the next couple of years. There are two focus areas that can be further exploited:

1. Reorder: Voice assistants can use predictive AI which uses previous purchase history and user data patterns to estimate what users may want to buy. Based on this, voice assistants can remind the customer that their subscription is due for renewal or they are likely to run out of cereal the coming weekend, or there is a combo offer on their favorite product in the nearest store.

2. Return: Voice assistants can automate the process of returning products - where once the product is delivered, customers will be asked whether they would like to return the product. If they do, the voice assistant will ask them the reason for return, time of return pickup, and confirm the return request with the vendor.

Current Limitations

1. Algorithm

When faced with any scenario, AI uses the deep learning algorithm in order to recognize patterns and perform relevant actions. To do so, deep learning algorithm relies on the pre-fed training data, which includes all the relevant information about specific scenarios and helps AI to come up with the most accurate output. However, no amount of training data can cover all the scenarios an AI may face. When confronted with a new scenario which is not covered by the training data, AI cannot comprehend it and may return incorrect outputs; which further raises questions about its reliability. For example, a robot that can pick up a ball may not be able to pick up a bat if he is not provided the training data required for it.

2. Data security

The best part of voice assistants is they never miss a word you say; the worst part is, they never miss a word you say. Voice assistants are able to listen to everything that’s said around them and are constantly collecting data. Hence, it becomes necessary to regulate who can access this data and for what purposes. Apart from this, voice assistants can also fall prey to hackers who can infiltrate them to steal a user’s personal data. Right now, there are no concrete laws or regulations to monitor this, which remains a critical challenge. Here are some tips to keep your IoT devices safe.

As of now, AI is far from perfect and cannot be deemed as reliable as human intelligence; or may never be. So instead of treating AI as the answer to entire human task automation, maybe we can focus on it to accomplish only specific tasks until we find a better alternative.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/integrating-ai-with-voicehttps://www.built.io/blog/integrating-ai-with-voiceFri, 28 Dec 2018 00:00:00 GMTToday, for every business process, there are a plethora of ‘as a service’ offerings. We see infrastructure as a service (IaaS), backend as a service (BaaS), software as a service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and so on, with new services being introduced everyday.

Of these, SaaS apps (such as Gmail, Salesforce, Marketo) are widely used by organizations for their day-to-day operations. iPaaS, on the hand, is a newer technology that lets organizations integrate SaaS data and automate tasks. It is a technology that is gaining momentum and is likely to witness rapid growth, due to the rapid adoption of SaaS apps.

For organizations to implement an iPaaS strategy, it’s important to understand these two technologies, the purpose they serve, and the difference between the two.

iPaaS: Integration Platform as a Service is a suite of cloud services enabling development, execution and governance of integration flows, connecting any combination of on-premises and cloud-based processes, services, applications and data within individual or across multiple organizations.

SaaS: SaaS is a software that is owned, delivered and managed remotely by one or more providers. The provider delivers software based on one set of common code and data definitions that are consumed in a one-to-many model by all contracted customers at anytime on a pay-for-use basis, or as a subscription based on use metrics.

After the definitions from the expert, let’s understand the difference between iPaaS and SaaS in layman’s terms:

1. All iPaaS applications are a part of SaaS but the same is not applicable to SaaS as not all SaaS applications can be termed as iPaaS.

2. SaaS applications are individual services hosted entirely on cloud. iPaaS connects SaaS services for seamless flow of data between two or more applications.

3. While no part of SaaS application resides on-premises, iPaaS allows the user to integrate both, cloud-based and on-prem services.

4. Google Apps, Dropbox, Box, and Salesforce are some examples of SaaS. These cloud services do not allow users to connect multiple apps, sources or data and hence cannot be categorized as iPaaS.

5. Intelligent iPaaS solutions such as Built.io allow enterprises to integrate data from disparate sources on one single interface.

6. Both the solutions serve different purposes, hence are not interchangeable. You need to make the purchase decision based on your organization’s requirements.

To sum it up, we can say that iPaaS and SaaS apps should be chosen depending on the enterprise’s requirement. Suppose the company is need of integration, it cannot simply register on Salesforce and Zendesk and expect the data to automatically sync. It will require an integration platform to sync these SaaS apps.

If you are on the lookout for a reliable cloud integration partner, you can reach us at support-flow@built.io.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/ipaas-vs-saas-know-the-differencehttps://www.built.io/blog/ipaas-vs-saas-know-the-differenceWed, 26 Dec 2018 00:00:00 GMT“In education, technology can be a life-changer, a game changer, for kids who are both in school and out of school. Technology can bring textbooks to life. The Internet can connect students to their peers in other parts of the world. It can bridge the quality gaps.”

-- Queen Rania of Jordan

This timeless adage about technology by Queen Rania of Jordan holds true for businesses as well. Technology has been a game-changer for organizations, enabling their digital transformation. Today’s most successful organizations leverage a variety of applications and services, both in the cloud and on-premise, to adapt to the ever-changing needs of the dynamic business world.

However, using multiple applications for different teams and different tasks comes with its own set of challenges which often results in poor customer experiences and wasted cycles. To establish a digitally consistent presence, businesses must ensure that all their apps and the associated data are working in sync with one another.

This is where an Integration Platform as a Service or iPaaS comes into play. iPaaS is a technology that connects apps, devices, and on-premise systems to accelerate an organization's digital transformation. Any company, whether it is a startup or an enterprise must utilize iPaaS to solve their integration challenges, reduce manual processes, and focus on improving their differentiators.

Here is how iPaaS is helping organizations sow the seeds of Digital Transformation

Integration Platform as a Service is a cloud-based integration solution that helps enterprises streamline and automate workflows. It empowers key departments of the organization such as Human Resources, Accounting, Sales, Marketing, and IT to significantly reduce manual tasks and to streamline processes. With automated workflows and seamless connectivity between all of a business' applications, teams are able to achieve business outcomes faster with fewer resources and with a greater level of success.

To understand how iPaaS is helping enterprises in their digital transformation journey, let’s use Amazon as an example.

When you buy a product on Amazon, you instantly receive an email with your order details. As soon as the product is shipped, you get an SMS on your cell phone. You can then track the product via a tracking number in the message.

Now imagine if your team had to execute all these tasks manually. It would require several people working on these repetitive tasks for hours, directly impacting your organization's bottom line. Instead, iPaas automated workflows can help you streamline these processes and save hundreds of man-hours per month. The man-hours spent on manual tasks can be put into building better client relationships and delivering rich customer experiences.

If you’re still not convinced about how an intelligent iPaaS solution can help your business, let’s take a look at some of the benefits it offers.

Benefits of iPaaS

1. Automate workflows and processes

iPaaS allows you to create automated workflows in just a few minutes by integrating multiple apps on a single platform. These workflows execute actions based on a particular trigger, without requiring any manual intervention. Let’s say, you want to send an email to the customer care department to notify them about a customer who has added a product to the cart but not yet purchased it.

Using an iPaaS, you can build this integration one time, and an email will be sent to the customer care team every time a customer adds a product to the cart but doesn’t purchase it. With real-time updates about cart abandonment, teams can reach out to potential buyers at the right time and recover lost sales.

With automated workflows, teams can keep track of the entire customer journey, right from the first interaction to the customer becoming a brand loyalist. iPaaS brings data from multiple services into a single interface and transforms it into a comprehensible format. With a centralized data system in place, organizations can gain better insights into customer behavior and make well-informed business decisions.

3. Do more in less time. Increase productivity

Using an iPaaS, the tasks that usually take hours or even days can now be completed within a few minutes through automation. For instance, consider the daily tasks of a company’s HR department. When an employee joins a company, the onboarding can take an entire day. But if the same process is executed through an iPaaS platform, the employee’s information is automatically recorded in the database and shared with the appropriate departments - all in a few seconds.

As you automate repetitive tasks like fetching data and maintaining Google Sheets or sending a notification to your teammates on Slack for every deal, you will be saving hours. The same time and energy can then be invested in the productive tasks that will drive results in the future.

As technology continues to evolve every single day and ‘digital-first’ becomes the primary growth strategy for businesses, integration will become a key component in driving this change.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/ipaas-sowing-the-seeds-of-digital-transformationhttps://www.built.io/blog/ipaas-sowing-the-seeds-of-digital-transformationThu, 20 Dec 2018 00:00:00 GMTWith great powers, comes great responsibility! Now that we have joined forces with Software AG, we are more determined than ever, to keep rolling out features that will make your lives easier. In this week’s release, we have focused on facilitating enhanced data security mechanisms, faster and smoother workflow executions, and improved project-level collaborations to enrich your integration experience.

Here are the highlights:

Enhance Workflow Data Security with Data Masking and Encryption

You can now add an extra layer of security to your trigger and action input/output data by masking it.

You can see the input/output data of your configured trigger or action in the ‘Test’ window. From here, you can mask specific keys of the data or you can mask the entire object. Read more about Data Masking.

Moreover, Built.io Flow will encrypt your workflow execution logs with the type input and output, and store them in our DB, by default. This will ensure that your critical data cannot be accessed by an unauthorized person.

Retry: Auto-execute failed actions

Notify Built.io Flow to retry a failed action two more times before it throws an error and stops the workflow execution.

To do this, you have to simply toggle-on the highlighted option. After this, whenever an action fails during workflow execution, Built.io Flow will automatically try to re-execute it two more times before throwing an error. This will significantly reduce the number of failed workflows and credit consumption. Read more on Retry.

Checkpoints: Resume workflow execution from the point it failed

Enable checkpoints for your workflow to save the status of each successfully executed action. So, if the workflow fails and you re-execute it, Built.io Flow will automatically check for the last successfully executed action and will resume workflow execution from that point onwards. This will help you execute workflows faster and with more ease. Know more about Checkpoints.

Global Error Handler: Try-catch block for your workflow

You can now add a try-catch block for your workflow to handle any errors thrown during workflow execution.

The Global error handler is similar to an independent sub-workflow which will be executed in case an error occurs during the workflow execution. This eliminates the need to attach a separate error handler for each workflow action, consequently making the error handling easy. Read on to know how the Global Error Handler works.

Try out these features for your workflows and let us know what you think. For any assistance, drop us a line at support-flow@built.io.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/announcing-powerful-features-to-boost-data-security-and-productivityhttps://www.built.io/blog/announcing-powerful-features-to-boost-data-security-and-productivityFri, 16 Nov 2018 00:00:00 GMTToday, I am proud and excited to share some BIG NEWS: As you might have seen from the press announcement, Built.io Flow has a new home! Software AG, the global software powerhouse headquartered in Germany, has acquired Built.io after it recognized the incredible potential of adding the team and technology to its own. By combining the agility of our cloud-native integration platform with its own proven webMethods platform, they can now enable powerful enterprise integration and Digital Transformation like never before.

With our leadership in cloud integration and Software AG’s leadership in digital transformation through enterprise integration, we are jointly able to offer customers the world's most advanced hybrid integration platform. Now backed by one of the largest software vendors in the world, Built.io brings it’s cutting-edge technology to an even stronger leadership position in enterprise integration.

The journey to get to this milestone was an incredible one. We introduced Built.io Flow to the market just as the industry was beginning to catch on to iPaaS. Gartner quickly recognized us as a new entrant to the space while marquee customers like Cisco, the Sacramento Kings and the Miami HEAT provided us an opportunity to demonstrate the magic of Built.io at scale.

With the support of our amazing customers, partners, brand ambassadors, and our own dedicated team we were able to build an incredible, unique business. Now, this special talent (and our special sauce) will become part of Software AG’s esteemed team and product portfolio. With Software AG’s muscle behind Built.io, the team can now deliver even more innovation and a richer service to existing – and future – customers. Built.io is about to become supercharged and have an exponentially bigger impact and stronger global reach as part of a company that cares deeply about this technology and shares our vision and values.

The list of “thank yous” is too long for a blog post – countless individuals, teams and organizations directly and indirectly helped us achieve this major milestone – you (hopefully) know who you are but also know that we are deeply grateful to each and every one of you. We can’t wait to celebrate what is in many ways the ultimate endorsement and reward for all of our hard work, a clear vision, inimitable innovation, and a precious culture that was built with passion and care.

We will of course continue to work closely with our dear friends and former colleagues at both Raw Engineering and Contentstack to solve our joint customers’ integration problems. No matter who you’ve been interacting with among the former Built.io family of companies, you can expect business as usual.

Please join me in congratulating the entire Built.io team for this amazing move and Software AG for what history will prove to be one of its smartest, most impactful acquisitions!!

Well-said, Marcos Serraglio! This testimonial demonstrates a success recipe for enterprises, big or small. Irrespective of the size, all businesses must focus on ‘connecting the different departments,’ within their organization. A digitally connected business helps streamline communication, saves time, and reduces errors. So how can you go about achieving this? The solution, is in the quote.

It is none other than the intelligent workflow automation software, popularly known as an Integration Platform-as-a-Service (iPaaS).

Before you invest into the software, here are some of the features you should look at to make the most out of the iPaaS you choose:

Integration with cloud-based apps

While choosing a workflow automation tool, the most important feature to consider is seamless integration between all your apps. The software should allow you to connect cloud based apps to other cloud based apps and legacy systems while playing the role of a mediator.

The main challenge a user who isn’t an integration expert faces is transforming data and building a common format for inputs and outputs. If you connect these applications using an integration platform, the tool will extract the required data from disparate sources, transform the same and load it onto the system giving you the desired outcome without having to code every input and output.

Easy & helpful visual interface

Ease of use and fast on-boarding are key to choosing the right platform for your needs. A platform with a simple and powerful visual interface allows everyone, from amateurs to integration experts to use the chosen platform to the fullest. Also, when you are collaborating with multiple departments, the graphical representation of a workflow makes it easier for everyone involved to understand the end-to-end process, all from the same canvas.

The interface should also make it convenient to check for errors, rectify them, and perform a live test of the designed workflow.

Drag and drop tools

Integrating different cloud-based apps is a labyrinthine task. To avoid spending countless hours training the employees on how to create workflows, invest in an intuitive and user-friendly platform, which is simple to understand and easy to use. Choose a software that comes with a visual ‘drag- and- drop’ interface.

Professional services

If you are planning to invest in iPaaS, make sure that you opt for the vendor who offers a plethora of integration services like:

i) Pay-as-you-go: Look for customizable plans that allow you to pay only for the resources and features you use.

ii) Cloud-based: The platform should be deployed and monitored on the cloud.

iii) Ready-to-use platform: Opt for a ready-to-use platform which you can start using without undergoing any complex installation or setup procedure.

If you choose the right vendor, iPaaS is a technology which can change streamline your organization and drive efficiencies. The productivity will increase and profits will follow.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/4-essential-workflow-automation-featureshttps://www.built.io/blog/4-essential-workflow-automation-featuresWed, 26 Sep 2018 00:00:00 GMTWe have all read inspiring stories of companies with big ideas that become goliaths like Google and Amazon. To smaller businesses, reaching this position may seem like a far-off dream. Especially for startups and bootstrapped companies. There is a common belief that venture capital is a prerequisite for success. While VCs are often considered the reason for the growth of startups, it is not the be-all, end-all answer founders are looking for.

Entrepreneurs can scale their businesses with minimal capital too, using powerful automations. Automation empowers small businesses to save several man hours by streamlining processes and communication across the entire organization. Based on a set of predefined rules, it triggers workflows for automatic execution of tasks, without requiring any additional resources.

How can automation be put to work for you?

You can accelerate business growth using automation to build a disruptive product. Automated processes are less prone to errors, more efficient, time-saving, and they require no remuneration. Here are a few specific case studies to help better understand what automation can do for you in practice.

1. Boost productivity and enhance performance

A timeless adage in business is, ‘happy employees translate to happy customers’. Ensuring that your employees are motivated and productive is crucial for sustained business growth. Automating employee management processes such as onboarding, attendance management, vacation requests, accounts and payroll, etc. can help you save time and avoid a lot of unanticipated issues that crop up when the workforce increases. Here is how you can put your recruitment process on autopilot.

2. Automate manual processes to save time and resources

Automation optimizes business processes without compromising the quality of service. Teams can automate several repetitive tasks that are carried out on a daily basis, including, responding to emails, data entry, server health checks, scheduling meetings, and more. Automation allows teams to prioritize better by performing a variety of tasks within minutes, which can be a huge time savings for small businesses. Also, automation enables small businesses to channel their time and effort on more important tasks, such as creating a new growth strategy. If your solution is competing against the big players in the industry, automation can help reduce the time-to-market, while utilizing your existing resources.

3. Improve multi-departmental collaboration

Automation streamlines communication between different teams by centralizing data scattered across various departments, platforms, and processes. With increased visibility into inter-departmental operations, teams find it easier to deliver a seamless, omni-channel experience to the customer. Just imagine all of a company's marketing and sales data being integrated, such that the sales and marketing teams work together with the same data to achieve higher conversions.

4. Reduce dependency on IT

Whether it is a requirement for a software tool or assigning permissions to access a database, the IT team is often overburdened with requests, in addition to their daily tasks. A self-service automation solution can help individual teams to build, run, monitor their own workflows, and eliminate project bottlenecks. Using integration workflows, you can stop project bottlenecks and allow the IT team to get back to the things that are important.

5. Simplify order management and streamline returns

An efficient order management process is fundamental to the growth of a business, since it is one of those processes that have a direct impact on the bottom line. Companies that still process orders via paper invoices or by manually creating them online face the risk of errors, delayed payments, and unhappy customers. Setting up an automated order processing workflow can help simplify the demand-supply chain.

In addition to order fulfillment, automation can be useful for streamlining returns. Manually operated refunds are usually muddled and can take several days to process, if not done correctly. This may irk new customers and compel them to refrain from associating with your brand. Using automation, small businesses can prevent this issue. Automation provides greater visibility on the order status and the refund processing to both the business and the customer in real-time. This kind of transparency helps businesses increase their brand’s goodwill and and eventually translates into more sales.

6. Gather data-driven insights

Automated data analysis is always more economical than manual data analysis, regardless of your business size. Automation tools gather valuable big data and arm you with superior knowledge to help you make smarter decisions. They put you in a better position to understand efficiencies, recognize areas of improvement, and analyze customer behaviour through the entire lifecycle. Manual interpretation of data cannot provide this deep level of analytics. Additionally, automation can pull data much faster than any human and make it available for real-time analysis.

With these insights and in mind, you can choose the best automation solution for your business.

Built.io Flow: Powering smart automation through integration

Built.io Flow, an intelligent iPaaS helps small businesses automate processes by connecting disparate apps, devices, services, and on-premise systems. It comes with an intuitive, drag-and-drop visual interface that allows you to build powerful workflows in the shortest possible time. From something as basic as pre-scheduling social media messages to as complex as transferring bulk data to different environments, Flow has you covered. Since it operates entirely on the cloud, Flow requires no complex setup or installation procedures. You can build highly scalable automated solutions for your business simply by connecting your most used apps. Built.io Flow offers integrations for more than 150 apps.

If you are a startup or small business looking to implement automation technology in your operations, we can help. Drop us a line at support-flow@built.io to get in touch.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/how-automation-can-help-bootstrapped-companies-save-resources-and-scale-fasterhttps://www.built.io/blog/how-automation-can-help-bootstrapped-companies-save-resources-and-scale-fasterTue, 18 Sep 2018 00:00:00 GMTWhat keeps the sales reps from converting a lead into a customer? Is it the lack of efforts? No. Sales teams, around the globe, face similar challenges while closing a deal. ]]>https://www.built.io/blog/5-actionable-ways-to-boost-saleshttps://www.built.io/blog/5-actionable-ways-to-boost-salesWed, 12 Sep 2018 00:00:00 GMTOrganizations are increasingly turning towards SaaS applications for addressing their complex business needs. While most teams are benefitting from the usage of cloud-based software, integration architects have been struggling to make these applications work in sync with their on-premise systems.

To deliver unified customer experiences, it is crucial to connect data from multiple applications and from different environments. Consequently, the information technology world’s architecture is undergoing a seismic shift.

Introducing hybrid cloud

Hybrid cloud environments offer enterprises the best of both worlds – a mix of on-premise, private cloud and third-party public cloud applications. In the last two years alone, adoption of hybrid cloud solutions has tripled, with the hybrid cloud market expected to hit a value of $91.74 billion by 2021. For organizations with business-critical on-premise apps, moving to a hybrid cloud model can have massive cost-saving benefits and operational advantages.

Businesses can make use of hybrid integration solutions such as an Integration Platform-as-a-Service or iPaaS to connect their on-premise apps with cloud services. An iPaaS offers the perfect solution to the challenges of integrating data from different environments.

iPaaS is the new cloud middleware

According to Gartner, iPaaS is the fastest-growing software segment in the integration market. Typically, an iPaaS includes connectors, business rules, and a drag-and-drop interface – that facilitate quick and easy development of integration workflows. Furthermore, it eliminates app and data silos, offering every team access to a centralized data pool. With seamless connectivity between all apps, teams have more time to invest in critical business processes, without having to setup an in-house integration team and system.

Let's take a look at how iPaaS facilitates hybrid cloud integration:

Develops connectivity: iPaaS connects your legacy systems to other devices, apps, cloud services, etc. and populates them with the on-premise data, allowing you to create powerful workflows and automate business processes.

Improves collaboration: iPaaS allows multiple teams to collaborate on a workflow and projects. It intelligently routes data across different departments and triggers automated workflows to increase the overall productivity of the organization.

Enhances data integrity: iPaaS enables teams and applications to exchange different formats of data in real-time. Using automation, iPaaS ensures that the transferred data is error-free, and shared in the format preferred by the respective systems.

Optimizes operations: iPaaS leverages connectivity to help organizations streamline and upgrade all areas of business. The solution saves time, costs and effort by reducing the margin of error to zero, and empowers organizations to gain higher business value through application and data integration.

The steps mentioned above are just a high-level explanation of what an iPaaS is capable of doing in only a couple of minutes. Once you begin using automated integration workflows in your daily business processes, you can get a lot more done each day.

Built.io Flow for hybrid architecture

For hybrid integration, Built.io Flow offers a 'repository-agnostic' Enterprise Gateway that connects legacy, firewalled systems to a variety of technologies including cloud software, developer tools, mobile applications, and IoT. The gateway establishes a secure connection between Built.io and your server behind the firewall, allowing you to easily access data from your on-premise systems. Any individual belonging to any team can quickly develop an integration to sync data from disparate environments using Flow's intuitive, visual interface. Flow offers hundreds of services and apps in its library to power the integration of anything, anywhere.

For more information on how Built.io Flow handles on-premise and cloud integrations, drop us a line at support-flow@built.io. Built.io operates entirely in the cloud - from design to deployment. Just sign up and you can start automating!

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/go-hybrid-introduce-your-on-premise-systems-to-your-cloud-applicationshttps://www.built.io/blog/go-hybrid-introduce-your-on-premise-systems-to-your-cloud-applicationsFri, 07 Sep 2018 00:00:00 GMTAccording to McKinsey & Company’s analysis, “about 60 percent of occupations could have 30 percent or more of their constituent activities automated.” The statistics also claim that the “activities consuming more than 20 percent of a CEO’s working time could be automated using current technologies. These include analyzing reports and data to inform operational decisions, preparing staff assignments, and reviewing status reports.”

In its report, McKinsey & Company also states that “in many cases, automation technology can already match, or even exceed, the median level of human performance required.”

Beyond the points the McKinsey & Company made, automating manual tasks and connecting disparate systems will allow your team to focus on your key differentiators. Here are some of the benefits of embracing an integration powered microservice approach:

Increases productivity

Automating manual tasks using workflows allows employees to invest their time in important tasks by saving the hours that were spent on manual, repetitive tasks. For example, by automating the hiring process, the Human Resources team can focus on selecting the right candidate instead of losing time on organizing the candidate’s data collected from various sources during the shortlisting process.

Better coordination and communication

To explain this better, let’s look at typical sales teams. Sales representatives, due to the workload, updates across applications are often delayed. This may result in multiple people working on the same lead or delayed responses because systems haven’t been updated. With workflow automation, you can have your sales CRM tools updated automatically in real-time, allowing your team to work efficiently and automate tasks like updating systems so that handoffs are smooth. This will avoid confusion, resulting in better coordination and communication across the team.

Reduces human errors

Human errors are unavoidable. With automated workflows, repetitive tasks and syncing operations can be completely automated to remove any chance of human error.

Streamlines processes

Workflow automation helps the key members to identify bottlenecks and monitor the performance hence making it easier to streamline the process. Workflow automation reduces human errors and allows employees to allot time to essential tasks; the outcome of which is, undoubtedly, increased revenues. As employees focus on tasks that are targeted towards profit, the revenues progressively improve.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/enterprises-are-switching-to-workflow-automation-here-s-whyhttps://www.built.io/blog/enterprises-are-switching-to-workflow-automation-here-s-whyTue, 04 Sep 2018 00:00:00 GMTToday's IT environment necessitates multiple teams working on multiple platforms including cloud software, legacy systems, databases, et al. These technologies often do not communicate with each other natively. For business data integrity, connectivity between disparate apps and services is critical, which is why an increasing number of organizations are turning to application and data integration.

Considering the breakneck speed at which technology is evolving, designing a fully integrated, data-driven system in the shortest possible time has become a differentiating factor. The faster an organization integrates all their systems, the quicker it can optimize business processes and improve the bottom line.

Yet, the task of creating enterprise-wide integrations continues to puzzle businesses. Most organizations are at the crossroads of “build vs. buy” and are not sure which direction to pursue.

Determining whether to buy or build integrations

For organizations that have minimal integration requirements, hand-coded integrations are often perceived as the quickest and most logical path.

However, the integration requirements are constantly changing because of new applications or adjustments to the business processes. As the number of integrations across applications multiplies, the complexity of the infrastructure increases. Custom integrations prove inadequate for this new scenario and often give rise to 'spaghetti code', consequently contributing to the organization's technical debt.

To better understand this, let's take a look at how the Build vs. Buy decision can impact an organization.

Building your integrations

The build option offers full control, from infrastructure to coding – the integration is designed, run, maintained and monitored in-house, the costs of which are entirely borne by the organization. A developer can combine custom code and open source libraries to create point-to-point integrations between multiple applications. The drawback, however, with building an integration is that it offers limited scope of accessibility to other teams and increases the dependency on the IT department.

Once the initial integration is running, there is a constant maintenance of the integration from scaling and patching to managing API changes across multiple services.

Buying a third-party integration service

Purchasing an integration platform or iPaaS comes with an advantage of speed and agility. An integration platform allows teams to design custom integrations by offering them a variety of pre-built connectors and easy-to-use graphical design tools. The maintenance, security and scalability of the solution is handled by the service provider, saving you countless hours every week.

Ultimately, choosing to build or buy software is subjective and no two companies may follow the same path.

Before you make the decision, consider the following:

Does the integration require additional resources for creation, deployment, and maintenance?

Does it need special permissions and user authentication for access by different teams?

Does the integration come with self-service capabilities or requires extensive technical training?

Will the integration cause changes in the existing infrastructure and processes?

How many use cases will the integration address?

Does the integration exceed the established timeline and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)?

Tying it all together: Why choose an iPaaS?

Having a single platform to integrate numerous applications and services can simplify your deployment and help drive additional value through workflows that automate business processes. An integration platform-as-a-service (iPaaS) empowers teams to bring together applications, services and data from different environments into a single interface. By leveraging an iPaaS, teams can develop customized cloud and hybrid integrations, without having to install any additional software. Since iPaaS is cloud-based, it is easy to implement, manage and scale, making it one of the most cost-effective enterprise integration platforms.

With iPaaS, you can take advantage of the following:

Connect multiple applications from different environments in a few minutes

Automate repetitive tasks

Integrate, store, access, and transform different types of data from the same platform

Break down data silos and improve collaboration between teams and applications

Reduce DevOps requests

Free up IT cycles by enabling teams to manage their integration needs with a no-code, self-service interface

Reduce the total cost of operations for integration projects

Accelerate time to market

Simplify your integration model with Built.io Flow

Built.io Flow is an award-winning, enterprise-grade iPaaS. It integrates data from various applications spanning across public and private clouds, legacy systems, mobile devices, and IoT into a centralized dashboard.

The clean and intuitive UI offered by Built.io Flow comes with visual drag-and-drop tools that make it easy for anyone to build an integration workflow within minutes. Additionally, Built.io Flow offers broad connectivity with hundreds of services so you can design workflows tailored to your specific needs.

For businesses that are attempting to cut down on infrastructure costs, using Flow removes the need to install, maintain, and update the software.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/the-ipaas-decision-tree-should-you-buy-or-build-your-integrations-https://www.built.io/blog/the-ipaas-decision-tree-should-you-buy-or-build-your-integrations-Mon, 27 Aug 2018 00:00:00 GMTStewart Kirkpatrick, a digital strategist, has explained why we get tricked by hackers and why our devices get hacked. Here’s what he has to say about hoaxes orchestrated by hackers:

“Hoaxes use weaknesses in human behavior to ensure they are replicated and distributed. In other words, hoaxes prey on the Human Operating System.”

No matter how advanced the technology is, the security of the devices depends on the proactiveness of its owner. To keep your IoT devices safe, it’s important to avoid falling prey to these hoaxes.

So, how do you keep your IoT devices safe? Here are some tips:

Automated security updates

All software must be updated regularly because hackers are likely to find loopholes in the software over time, especially if the device is popular. Smartphone manufacturers constantly work to close these loopholes and release software updates frequently to keep your device safe from pernicious attacks. When purchasing an IoT device, look for devices that offer an automated software updates to avoid security breaches.

Security first

Before you start using your new IoT device, change its default password to a strong and complex password that only you know. If the password remains unchanged or is too generic, it is easy for hackers to exploit your device as soon as it’s connected to the Internet. Once these basic security measures are taken, you can start using your IoT device.

Separate network for all IoT devices

Keep IoT devices on their own network and have separate networks for your personal use, for your IoT devices, and for your guests. With different passwords for each network, you will be able to easily configure multiple networks to alignment with your needs. A single network for your IoT devices allows one to protect their other assets from security threats created by these devices. This also gives the user the capability to encrypt a network of IoT devices that might not be protected. Using a single secure network will reduce the liability associated with an ever more technical environment of IoT devices.

Choose a trusted brand

When it comes to IoT devices, choose brands that can be trusted. Trustworthy brands are important because they tend to have stronger security measures, more consistent updates, and better customer support to help ensure security of your devices. Now, just imagine what could happen if you buy substandard IoT devices for your house like a security camera. Your house, secured by IoT cameras can become a hacker’s tool to see into your home life. Now imagine if these problems were scaled to your business.

Your business may not have cameras, but they do have other IoT devices where security is of the utmost importance. As an example, picture below grade IoT devices used for data collection caused by substandard devices. Just like in the housing scenario, your data asset can quickly turn into a hacker’s tool to get into your business. Choose a trusted brand to mitigate the aforementioned risk that results from substandard security on IoT devices.

Different passwords for different devices

Using a single password for multiple devices is not a good practice. If a cyber criminal manages to crack the password of one device, only that device will be compromised. But, if you have the same password for all your IoT devices, then all these devices will be compromised. Treat your IoT devices as you treat your email accounts. Protect each device with a different and unique password.

This list of security tips is not exhaustive, but it is a good place to start. Securing your devices against cyber attack is not rocket science, but it requires some work. Taking a few simple steps regularly such as changing your passwords, updating the software, using a combination of security practices and technologies. can go a long way in protecting your devices against unanticipated threats and attacks.

If you own or administer IoT devices, take a look at our blog to stay informed about new developments in the IoT landscape.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/iot-devices-tips-to-keep-them-safehttps://www.built.io/blog/iot-devices-tips-to-keep-them-safeWed, 22 Aug 2018 00:00:00 GMTAs organizations inch closer to digital transformation and adopt multiple best-of-breed SaaS applications, the complexity of the IT architecture is soaring. In isolation, these apps reduce complexity, but to be truly valuable, they need to be seamlessly connected to each other. This is where most enterprises hit a roadblock, namely, integration and automation.

Dodgy integrations raise tech debt

Usually, the daunting task of integrating cloud applications and legacy systems is handled by developers. To save resources and time, developers may create one-to-one integrations for certain systems and applications. This seems like a good solution, at least for that specific use case. The problem begins when these integrations are reused for multiple projects and processes. Different apps function differently. A particular integration may not necessarily be useful for different processes. Refactoring a solution without understanding the conditions under which it was developed only increases the technical debt.

As per a CAST Research Labs (CRL) estimate, technical debt of an average-sized application of 300,000 lines of code (LOC) is $1,083,000. This represents an average technical debt of $3.61 for every line of code written. Another study found that software developers spend approximately 80% of development costs on identifying and correcting defects.

These numbers are an unfortunate reality for many developers. Single-use, point-to-point integrations may result in a lot of reworking and can be extremely exhausting, making developer burnout a growing concern.

iPaaS to the rescue

iPaaS (Integration Platform as a Service) leverages the power of APIs to make life easier for developers. It quickly connects disparate systems, applications, and data, regardless of the environment - whether it is on cloud, on-premises, or using a combination of both.

Providing seamless connectivity between multiple apps, iPaaS helps developers to build, monitor and execute integration workflows from a centralized place. It enables developer teams to design custom integrations using the tools and processes that are known to them, without causing any disruption to their day-to-day operations.

Turn your developers into superheroes

Most iPaaS providers today offer an easy-to-use, code-free visual interface, making it the ideal solution for automating business processes across all the teams in an organization. Users from any team can quickly set up an integration workflow, with zero coding experience. This helps developers drastically reduce the time spent on building automation workflows for daily tasks, and saves time for important, larger projects that are crucial to the growth of the business.

iPaaS understands and provides output in commonly used data formats such as JSON, XML, SOAP, REST and other web service protocols. This helps developers design applications faster, simply by configuring their development processes and environments, without any additional coding.

Furthermore, by connecting various services, an iPaaS solution creates a data-centric system for continual monitoring of an application's performance, usage, and logs. Developers can tie together key pieces of their end-to-end application development and achieve faster time-to-implementation and app delivery.

Say hello to Built.io Flow!

In today's fast-paced and agile business environment, developers need to be able to design cross-application workflows not only quickly but also accurately.

Built.io Flow, an integration platform built by developers for developers, offers a self-service, drag-and-drop interface that enables development teams to build complex integrations in the shortest possible time. Flow connects any microservice, device or platform that uses APIs. It provides actions, triggers and ready-to-use workflow templates for hundreds of applications. If a service is not available out of the box, developers can use the Connector Builder to create a reusable connector and share it across the platform. Flow's containerized approach to business logic enables developers to deliver best-of-breed projects, without having to re-architect the entire system or IT environment.

If you are looking to streamline your application development and business processes, drop us a line at support-flow@built.io.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/overcome-technical-debt-and-developer-burnout-with-ipaashttps://www.built.io/blog/overcome-technical-debt-and-developer-burnout-with-ipaasThu, 09 Aug 2018 00:00:00 GMTEfficient and effective customer support processes improve customer satisfaction and adoption, which is the catalyst for improved sales and retention numbers. Organizations—big and small—understand this, which is why they opt for robust CRM applications and smart customer support platforms to enable their customer support strategy. Salesforce and Zendesk are two examples of an enterprise CRM and a customer support tool, respectively, that are popular with organizations because of the features and flexibility they offer. ]]>https://www.built.io/blog/sync-salesforce-and-zendesk-records-seamlesslyhttps://www.built.io/blog/sync-salesforce-and-zendesk-records-seamlesslyThu, 26 Jul 2018 00:00:00 GMTCloud applications were supposed to alleviate IT woes. However, instead of eliminating data silos, these apps are adding to it, making it more difficult than ever for IT managers to manage data.

As organizations evolve, they adopt new applications to meet each departments needs. This means you may have a completely different set of tools for marketing, sales, and IT. With multiple disparate systems, there is no way to ensure data posterity across tools or departments. Say you are using Hubspot, Bullhorn, Outreach, Dropbox, and a couple other tools across your organization. To connect these tools, you would either have to manually update each system or spend lengthy development cycles to build custom integrations instead of focusing on differentiating your product.

This is where an enterprise grade integration solution is needed.

Enterprise Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) enables businesses to connect to web applications, on-premise systems and databases. The challenges of digital transformation can be easily handled by and integration platform, making it possible to easily connect with different applications and databases.

Built.io Flow’s integration platform allows business users and developers to build multi-point integrations that connect various cloud and on-premise apps, and deploy these integrations without writing any code or installing any additional hardware or software.

Features of an Enterprise iPaaS solution

1. Multi-tenant cloud architecture available as a service

Since iPaaS is a cloud-based service, it has all the characteristics of the cloud architecture. Among other things, it can scale easily to allow you to have numerous connections and meet all the necessary data-integration demands.

2. Pay-as-you-go pricing model

Getting started with cloud-based integration platforms is as easy as purchasing a subscription plan. There is no upfront setup or hardware installation cost involved. There are various plans available for various types of usage. This makes it easier for companies of any size to get started with iPaaS.

3. Centralized management

iPaaS provides the ability to manage all the integrations from one central location. It provides a user-friendly console to manage, view, and edit your integration workflows, allowing you to have greater control over your data.

4. Ability to manage complex integrations

Enterprise-grade integration platforms provides several developer tools that allow IT managers to customize the behavior of the platform. Many sophisticated iPaaS these days provide advanced features such multi-branch workflows, conditional logic, control statements, custom action builders, and so on. This allows the organization to leverage the power of integration for complex needs as well, instead of using it for simple one-to-one integrations.

5. Data Accuracy

iPaaS automates the exchange of data between applications. Moreover, most professional, enterprise-grade integration platforms are secure, robust, and accurate, thereby eliminating errors that are otherwise common in the manual process.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/enterprise-ipaas-for-managing-organization-data-siloshttps://www.built.io/blog/enterprise-ipaas-for-managing-organization-data-silosThu, 19 Jul 2018 00:00:00 GMTIn today's fast-paced world, the impact of business technology extends well beyond just return on investment. It is the linchpin driving growth across various departments, including HR, sales, support, IT, and marketing. Each department uses a multitude of applications spread over on-premise and cloud environments to work smarter and faster. But let's face it, having to work with a plethora of applications translates into a lot of disparate information, siloed customer data, and repetitive daily tasks for the teams.

One way to address this challenge is by integrating these apps to sync data and automate tasks. By automating processes across all teams, you can optimize business operations, bring high levels of efficiency to workflows, and of course, save man hours every week.

Let's take a look at how automation can help you build digitally connected teams.

Sales

In this age of 'consumer parallelism', customers wander freely across different platforms and devices to find the best deal. The path to purchase now spans across multiple touch points and involves interactions with multiple teams. For any sales rep, making sense of these raw stacks of data scattered across channels and platforms is like bailing out the ocean with a bucket. The solution to this is simple – cross-department collaboration and collaborative selling.

According to a 2016 Salesforce report, 73% of sales teams believe that cross-department collaboration is critical to the overall sales cycle. With automation, organizations can enable collaborative selling to provide sales teams with a unified, 360° view of the customers, and help accelerate the purchase decision.

Additionally, sales teams can save more time every day by automating several sales processes including lead creation and prioritization, meeting scheduling, invoice generation, order processing, payment collection, email follow up, reporting, and many others. They can even schedule calls and messages to leads with a single click using the power of automation.

Human Resource

HR is usually thought of as a manual-intensive department laden with document-driven processes. Most HR teams will attest to the fact that the pressure to carefully manage the employee lifecycle from hiring through resigning, while trying to keep costs to a minimum, is a real ordeal.

However, this is all about to change as human capital management becomes completely automated in the next 10 years, as per a recent research. Automation is the best way for HR to ensure that their talent is being utilized on what they were hired for: managing and assisting employees in career management.

Marketing

In the present day, marketing automation has become a prerequisite for designing successful marketing campaigns. According to a Marketo-Ascend2 study, 91% of the most successful marketers agree that marketing automation is very important to the overall success of their marketing activities.

Despite the increased adoption, most marketers still struggle when it comes to integrating the data spread across their marketing, CRM, and sales tools. Tracking hundreds of leads on different platforms can make it difficult to plot accurate customer journeys. This is where automation comes in.

Earlier, it enabled marketers to automate tedious tasks, such as publishing campaigns on social media, email, mobile and/or web pages. However, with the advent of sophisticated, new-age automation tools, marketers can now successfully bridge the gap between sales and marketing. Automation connects disparate services and apps to help marketing teams in creating fully integrated campaigns that not only boost conversions but also increase upsell opportunities. Using automation, teams can craft data-driven communication tailored to specific customer segments and achieve maximum ROMI.

IT

IT is one of the few teams that is available at the beck and call of every person in the organization, whether it is to ensure that the services are up and running or manage incidents. In addition to this critical role, companies are handing them the responsibility of supporting new initiatives such as implementation, IoT, and machine learning. As the complexity and number of projects continues to grow, IT personnel are struggling to keep up. This is the perfect opportunity to introduce automation in their day-to-day routine.

Automation can help IT teams in streamlining several repetitive processes, such as responding to similar kind of helpdesk tickets, updating incident status, marking spam, and more. Moving these manual tasks to an automation tool can dramatically improve efficiency, eliminate errors and allow IT teams to focus their expertise on more important time-bound projects.

With an automation tool in place, incidents are automatically triaged and assigned to the right individual at the right time, enabling team members to provide a greater level of support to both employees and customers. This, in turn, results in less remedial work, fewer outages, and better adherence to SLAs.

Customer Support

In any organization, more often than not, the customer service team is approached with an issue that they have encountered before. Much of the team's time is spent on performing repetitive tasks or responding to the same type of queries. Although emerging technologies are supporting customer service teams in easier problem solving, disconnected apps and siloed customer data often cause delays in the resolution process, leading to a negative customer experience. As per a study conducted by RightNow Technologies, 82% customers have disengaged from a brand after a bad experience. That's a huge number that can directly hit an organization's bottom line.

Automation offers the most logical solution to this; spend a few minutes today to save hundreds of hours in the future. From simple automations such as saving common replies, enabling notifications, setting up reminders, to more complex ones— including translating ticket content into a different language, adding them as new tasks and posting a reply to your customers—automation can help supercharge your customer support without compromising on the personal touch.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/automation-for-every-team-for-organizational-successhttps://www.built.io/blog/automation-for-every-team-for-organizational-successFri, 29 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMTAn iPaaS (Integration Platform as a Service) helps organizations connect various cloud-based applications and on-premise systems seamlessly to automate processes without having to setup an in-house integration system. With the steadily increasing number of iPaaS providers, choosing an iPaaS that suits your integration requirements can become an arduous task.

Moreover, with rapidly changing market conditions, it's almost impossible for any organization to predict the features or functionalities that it would require from an iPaaS in the next few years. The key is to focus on the immediate requirements that can be addressed by the iPaaS. For instance, if your requirement is to sync some web services with IoT devices, pick the ones, that provide IoT integration capabilities. Once this is done, you can start evaluating the shortlisted iPaaS providers based on the following factors:

1. Security

Choose an iPaaS that can be trusted with sensitive data. The strict government regulations for data protection –not to mention the direct financial losses an organization would incur in case of data leak– have made security the most critical aspect of the business. An iPaaS with meager security mechanisms may make your organizational data such as customer records, personal information, and passwords, susceptible to data breach and misuse. One way to avoid this, is to invest in an iPaaS that has robust security mechanisms such as data encryption, password protection, session management, security certifications, and information security standards in place.

2. Supported connectors/applications

To get the most out of your iPaaS, make sure that it supports all the web applications being used by your organization, along with the other web applications that you may adopt in the future. In addition to supporting your applications, see if they provide the specific actions you may need.

If this is difficult to find, look for providers that offer the ability to create connectors through their developer platform, through which any new application with an API can be integrated with your existing applications.

3. API versioning support

API versioning support is a pivotal part of iPaaS integration. When a web application upgrades their API version, the relevant changes also need to be incorporated in the integration architecture. In these scenarios, it is important to check whether the iPaaS provider will be handling the API changes and versioning, or if you will be responsible for upgrades and changes.

4. Performance and scalability

Scaling and performance are key areas to focus on when choosing an iPaaS. Even if you are a small organizations that doesn’t work with bulk data currently, you may do so in future. So rather than going for an iPaaS that caters to your current scaling requirements, always select an iPaaS that can handle your scaling requirements a couple of years down the line. Moreover, make sure that scaling doesn’t come at the price of performance. To get consistent or better results from your iPaaS, it is important that iPaaS performance remains constant at its highest scaling capability. In other words, the selected iPaaS should be able to handle a high volume of data with minimum or no latency.

5. Data transformation

When dealing with multiple applications and systems, you will inevitably run into a mismatch between outputs and inputs. To drive data integrity in all of your applications, your iPaaS must be able to handle all of your data transformation needs. A couple key features to look for are:

Data mapping - Maps data from one web service/application into another

Data transformations - Transforms data from one web service to fit the data structure of another web service

6. Pricing

Pricing plays an important role while finalizing the iPaaS provider. While evaluating this factor you need to consider a few parameters: Features, Support, and ROI. Most iPaaS providers offer a trial period in which you can see if the product is a fit for your use case while also seeing how responsive their support team is.

7. Usability

One of the biggest advantages to using an integration platform is that anyone with basic knowledge of integrations can maintain and improve your workflows. This means the user interface and ease of onboarding are of paramount importance. When you choose your platform, thoroughly test it and see if it is using the latest technology to power the integration engine as well as the front end.

Built.io Flow is a leading iPaaS platform, recognized in Gartner’s Enterprise Integration Platform as a Service magic quadrant, for two consecutive years. Take a look at the complete list of powerful features offered by Built.io Flow or drop us a line at support-flow@built.io for any assistance.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/things-to-consider-while-choosing-an-ipaashttps://www.built.io/blog/things-to-consider-while-choosing-an-ipaasTue, 26 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMTAutomating customer support isn’t about replacing human staff with chatbots or AI-enabled voice support to minimize human-to-human interaction. Chatbots are not able to accurately predict, perceive, and respond to customer as a human do; when a bot replaces humans, customers know the difference.]]>https://www.built.io/blog/don-t-lose-that-personal-touch-automate-customer-support-the-right-wayhttps://www.built.io/blog/don-t-lose-that-personal-touch-automate-customer-support-the-right-wayThu, 21 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMTWhen an employee quits or moves to a different team, managing the user data—safely destructing unwanted data, backing up important data, and transferring the ownership of data to another team member—is one of the important (and mundane) tasks of the IT department. However, deactivating users from multiple apps and moving hundreds of records manually can take hours (or even days) of your time. While these tasks are important and should be handled with great care, they add to the company’s cost and use manpower that can be otherwise put to better use.

One of the best ways to handle this is to automate these tasks.

With Built.io Flow, this is easy! There are several workflow templates that help you manage the data of your organization. Of these, one is specifically built to hand offboarding. Whenever an employee quits, Built.io Flow automatically suspends the user accounts, takes backup of the user data, and transfer control of their files to their manager

To be more specific, whenever a user is deactivated or deleted from Okta account, the workflow will automatically send a notification to a Slack channel, move all the files and folders of the user to the admin’s Box account, and will suspend the said user from the organization's Box account.

Here’s the link to the workflow. You can import this workflow from the library and start using it with a couple of clicks.

Once you have set up and enabled this workflow, Built.io Flow will watch your Okta account, and will execute this workflow when a user is deactivated.

Learn more about how this workflow works with our video tutorial.

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]]>https://www.built.io/blog/manage-data-of-leaving-employees-through-automationhttps://www.built.io/blog/manage-data-of-leaving-employees-through-automationWed, 13 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMTOrganizations, big or small, perform a variety of common business processes across all lines of business to achieve their business goals. A majority of these processes are still handled manually, but they don’t have to be. Enter: Business Process Automation.

Business Process Automation (BPA) is the process of automating your organizational workflows and activities with software and application integration for improved efficiency, transparency, and consistency. Business Process Automation systems can be implemented in all departments of your organization, such as Human Resource, Sales, Marketing, IT, and Customer Support. It can be used to automatically perform all sorts of tasks—from simple ones like employee leave record management to complex tasks such as employee retention, resolving customer tickets and sales pipeline management—to make routine business processes faster, error-proof, and cost-effective.

Having said that, it is important to understand that automation for the sake of automation can be counterproductive too. The goal of Business Process Automation is not just to automate your organizational workflows; it must make the business processes simpler and more efficient. The best way to achieve these goals is to consider two crucial factors before you start off with the automation.

1. What needs to be automated

2. Tools you need for automation

Which business processes should you automate?

You can automate all your business processes. But not all processes are same. Consequently, it would be easier to automate some, and more difficult to automate others. To ensure that you are investing resources for automating the business processes which actually need automation and that would yield better results, start with the ones that satisfy the parameters listed below:

1. Business processes that need to be error-free

2. Business processes that are consistent throughout the organization

3. Business processes that are repeatable

In other words, it’s ideal to automate business processes that require accuracy on each run, have predictable set of execution steps, and are repetitive in nature.

The best tool for Business Process Automation: iPaaS

Writing custom integrations for automating business processes can be quite expensive, time-consuming and prone to errors. The best way to achieve automation is to adopt an enterprise-class integration solution that enables smooth B2B data exchange, automate common processes, reduce IT complexity, and minimize overheads throughout the process.

Enterprise iPaaS (Integration Platform as a Service) comes with ready-to-use workflows or templates for various applications that can be easily configured to integrate applications seamlessly.

Here are some other benefits of using iPaaS for BPA:

1. Little or no setup required

2. Users with little or no technical expertise can use it

3. Quick and reliable scaling is possible due to cloud-based infrastructure

It’s not uncommon for businesses these days to have more than one Salesforce instances. A company may have multiple Salesforce instances dealing with different business lines or different instances for each acquired company.

Salesforce makes it easy for anyone to have more than one instances. However, it is not easy to manage the data of multiple instances, especially if you want to sync data between them. While you could log into each of your instances and manage each business line from each of those separate instances, wouldn’t it be easier if you could sync all of your data from multiple instances into whichever instance you want?

Syncing customer cases is one of the common requirements for companies with two different Salesforce instances. Cases are any customer interactions, questions or tickets. If you have two instances with same set of people managing cases for both, it’s important that these cases are synced seamlessly. However, doing this manually can be tedious. A great solution is to automate this so that the syncing can be done quickly, and in real-time.

With Built.io Flow, this is easy. Flow bidirectionally syncs cases between two Salesforce instances. So, if any new case is created in any one instance, it will automatically create the same in another. The integration solution comprises two workflows.

The first workflow, synchronizes all the cases created or updated in the source instance to the destination instance. In this workflow, Flow checks if the case that is created in the source account exists in the destination account; if it does not exist, then it creates the case in the destination account. If the case already exists, then any missing information of the case will be synchronized to the destination account.

Here’s the link to the workflow. You can import this workflow from the library and start using with a couple of clicks.

Once you have set up and enabled these workflows, all the cases data in both your accounts will remain up-to-date.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/sync-cases-between-salesforce-instances-in-real-timehttps://www.built.io/blog/sync-cases-between-salesforce-instances-in-real-timeWed, 06 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMTEmail marketing is one of the most personal ways of reaching your target customers. It is also one of the most effective and cost-effective ways of marketing.

Most internet users have at least one email account, and most of these users read email on a regular basis. By sending promotional or marketing emails, you are sure to reach where your target audience spend their time.

Let’s quickly look at the top five ways that can improve the outcome of your campaign and how integration can boost its effectiveness.

Ways To Make Email Campaigns More Impactful

1. Verify your email lists regularly

According to Jupiter Research, about 20% of email registrations contain common typing errors or domain related errors. Additionally, users use temporary email addresses to register on sites that they are not likely to visit again. If a significant portion of your list is comprised of fake or incorrect addresses, your email campaign will likely generate little value. Therefore, it is important to validate all of the email addresses before finalizing the list. While there are several ways to do this, the most common one is using an email verification service that automates the verification. The end result is a strong list of genuine email addresses, any of which could become a paying customer.

2. Send personalized emails

Most automated emails look like templates, and the tone sounds robotic. These emails often fail to garner the expected results because readers cannot relate to them, and, as a result, they end up in the trash bin.

Improve your email marketing by making the emails more personalized. This means doing more than just addressing the subscriber by the first name. It involves tailoring the body of the email to the requirements and interests of the subscriber. Use A/B testing to hone the personas of your subscribers and then deliver interesting and personalized content to each of your identified personas.

3. Optimize emails for mobile

Over the last decade, according to Statista, 237 million people use their phones to access the internet. A vast number of people use smartphone as the primary tool to access emails. Ignoring this set of subscribers would be disastrous for your email marketing campaign.

Accessing your marketing emails should be painless for mobile users. The best way to ensure mobile compatibility is by using responsive design. This ensures that your emails remain beautiful irrespective of the device they are accessed on.

4. Deliver clear and concise message

Today’s subscribers get mountains of promotional emails every day, most of these emails are overlooked or simply deleted. Even when recipients open the email, they only spend on average 7 seconds to skim through the message. It’s important to keep the email content short and to the point. Give the subscribers the information they need and write messages that are clear and concise.

5. Segment your email list

It’s important to realize that your email marketing list consists of people with different interests, behaviour, preferences and knowledge. Putting them all in one basket would hamper the effectiveness of the campaign.

Proper segmentation improves the open and click-through rates of your email marketing campaign. The more information you have about your subscribers, the better you can categorize their interest and needs. By segmenting your email lists, there are chances that the message that you send to the recipients are relevant to them.

Managing email campaigns can be tedious, and making them successful involves a lot of work. Thankfully, you can automate many mundane tasks using Built.io Flow, so that you can spend time doing things that matter the most.

Here are some of the best integrations that will help you increase effectiveness of your email campaign.

1. Use automation to save all MailChimp subscribers to Google Sheets

Save your MailChimp subscribers to a Google Sheet spreadsheet so that it becomes easier to share the list with your team members. This integration will automatically add the new subscribers of your MailChimp account to a row in a Google spreadsheet.

3. Use automation to receive a notification email when a new lead comes in

Such simple integrations will help you to save hours of efforts spent on a particular task. Similarly, you can integrate all your email marketing apps with Built.io Flow, and put all your work on auto-pilot mode. Give them a try, then pick the one that fits your requirement!

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/winning-marketing-campaigns-depend-on-automated-workflowshttps://www.built.io/blog/winning-marketing-campaigns-depend-on-automated-workflowsThu, 31 May 2018 00:00:00 GMTThe Connector Builder tool is a fast, smart, and secure way to add new connectors (actions and triggers) for any web application’s API. So, if there is a service with an API that is not available on Built.io Flow yet, you can use the connector builder to create a reusable connector that can be shared and published across the platform.

In this blog post, we will look at the steps involved in adding a new connector to Built.io Flow.

Let’s say that you want to use Google Drive and it isn’t on Built.io Flow yet. You can use the Connector Builder to create both triggers and actions for Google Drive.

Prerequisites

Before you get started with the Connector Builder, make sure you have:

You should now have a working local connector. You can now start adding the code for your actions, triggers, lookups, and authentication.

Step 6. Add actions, triggers, and lookups

6.1 To add new action, use:

flow create action <action_name>

For example: flow create action move_folder

When you execute this command, a new ‘action’ folder will be created in your connector’s directory with a ‘<action_name>.js’ file in it. Add your action’s code in that file’s execute function and update the input and output schema based on your requirements. Learn more about creating action with the Connector Builder.

6.2 To add new lookup in your connector, use:

flow create lookup <lookup_name>

For example: flow create lookup file_id

When you execute this command, a new ‘lookup’ folder will be created in your connector’s directory with a ‘<lookup_name>.js’ file in it. You can then add your lookup code in that file. Learn more about creating lookup with the Connector Builder.

6.3 To add new trigger, use:

flow create trigger <trigger_name>

For example, flow create trigger new_mail

When you execute this command, a new ‘trigger’ folder will be created in your connector’s directory with a ‘<trigger_name>.js’ file in it. You can add your trigger code in that file. Learn more about creating triggers with the Connector Builder.

Note: The name should consist of only alphanumeric characters and underscores.

Step 7. Create authentication for actions/triggers/lookup

flow auth

After entering this command, you will be prompted to select the authentication type (basic, API key, OAuth, custom). When you select an authentication type, an ‘authentication.js’ file will be created in your connector’s directory. You can then add authentication logic to this ‘authentication.js’ file. Learn more about creating authentication with the Connector Builder.

Step 8. Once all of your code is added, it’s time to test the connector

This is an optional step but we recommend that you perform it. The testing will be done against the sample data you have provided in your code.

Once you have deployed the connector, refresh the browser window of Built.io Flow.

The deployed connector will be added in the ‘Actions’ panel under the ‘Custom’ tab or added to the list of triggers and will be available for you to use locally. You can then download, share/unshare, or publish this connector.

The reference code for creating ‘Google Drive - New Folder’ trigger and ‘Google Drive - Move Folder’ actions can be found here.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/developers-heres-how-to-add-a-new-connector-to-built-io-flow-in-minuteshttps://www.built.io/blog/developers-heres-how-to-add-a-new-connector-to-built-io-flow-in-minutesMon, 28 May 2018 00:00:00 GMTYou people have the power to make or break your organization. Hiring the right people for the job is central to the success of your organization.

But let’s face it, hiring is a tedious and time-consuming process. It involves a number of mundane tasks—posting job requirements on various channels, screening resumes, coordinating with the interviewer and the interviewee, scheduling interviews, getting feedback —that take a lot of time and efforts. And the man hours spent on these tasks add up to the overall cost of hiring.

Automating some of these tasks is one of the best solutions. With Built.io Flow, you can put all the tasks—except deciding the best of all candidates—on automation. We have created a set of ready-to-use workflows that automatically reach out to maximum number of people via a social media channel, select relevant candidates that best suit your job profile requirements, and set up interviews with them. And all these can be done with just a few mouse clicks! This eliminates the need to manually post job descriptions on various social media sites, gather responses, follow up with users, manage their records, and schedule interviews. Let’s see how it works.

This workflow contains a Cisco Webex Teams trigger which automatically fires off the workflow as soon as any HR personnel posts a job description on company’s Cisco Webex Teams space and posts the specified job description details on company’s official Twitter account.

When an interested candidate fills out the Google form specified in the tweet and submits his/her response, it triggers the next workflow.

Step 2. Fetch candidate details from Google Forms and add them to Smartsheet

As soon as the candidate submits the Google form, his/her resume is automatically downloaded from the form and is uploaded on company’s Dropbox account. The candidate’s other details, including years of experience and key skills, are added to a sheet in Smartsheet which can be accessed by the company’s hiring committee.

Step 3. Schedule interview with the candidate

On reading the candidate details, if any member of the hiring committee finds that the candidate added to the smartsheet is suitable for a particular job description, they enter the suitable date and time for the interview and update a column in the smartsheet.

As soon as the Smartsheet column is updated, it triggers the final workflow which automatically creates a new space in Cisco Webex Teams, adds the hiring committee and the candidate to it, and sends an email notification to the candidate intimating him about his scheduled interview, which will take place in the newly created Cisco Webex Teams space.

And just like that, the interview is setup with minimum human intervention. You can further customize the behavior of these workflows, by adding social media channels and notification tools of your choice.

This was just a glimpse of the extent to which your interview scheduling process can be automated with the help of Built.io Flow.

Try this solution, and let us know how it worked out for you. For any assistance or help, drop us a line at support-flow@built.io.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/put-your-recruitment-process-on-autopilot-with-these-integrationshttps://www.built.io/blog/put-your-recruitment-process-on-autopilot-with-these-integrationsMon, 21 May 2018 00:00:00 GMTWe have been hard at work building new features that make it even easier to build, test, and collaborate on your workflows. Here’s a quick look at some of the new features:

Test Triggers and Actions

You can now test triggers and actions at each step of your workflow. This means you don’t have to wait for your workflow to trigger or rely on mock data to build your integrations. With live data, you see exactly how your data will work at each step in the workflow.

When you set up an action, the test feature will fetch data from your account instantly. Now, instead of seeing just the field names, you will see the actual data output from each service. This helps you build your workflows faster, test more efficiently, and spend less time debugging.

Collaborate easily with ‘Presence’

Collaborating on a workflow just got easier with Presence.

You can now access organizational workflows in two modes —Edit or View. The Edit mode lets you modify the workflow, while the View mode lets you view workflow settings. When multiple users are accessing the same workflow, you get to see the current collaborators. If the editor of the workflow exits the workflow canvas, the other users get a notification allowing them to edit the workflow. Learn more here.

Versioning and Rollback

Have you lost valuable work because you weren’t able to easily switch between versions of your work? Building integration workflows is no different. You can now view and retrieve previous versions of your workflow with Versioning.

Whenever a workflow is saved, a new version is created, and is added to the list of existing versions. You can then view, restore, and modify any version with a click. Now, you can use your best workflow without having to recreate it or waste time searching endlessly. Learn more about Versioning.

Dynamic Forms

Dynamic Forms means that actions can now dynamically render your custom fields. For example, in Google Sheets, Built.io Flow can now fetch all column headers of the sheet and display them as input fields in the action. Even better – you can now easily apply actions to custom fields and forms in business apps such as Salesforce, Marketo, etc. Now there’s no difference between “custom” and “standard" fields. Your integrations are all just “you.” Learn more here.

Try out these new features and let us know what you think. For any assistance or help, drop us a line at support-flow@built.io.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/builtio-flow-announces-powerful-new-featureshttps://www.built.io/blog/builtio-flow-announces-powerful-new-featuresWed, 25 Apr 2018 00:00:00 GMTThat’s a better way to start off the new year than introducing a bunch of incredible new capabilities.

Today, we are announcing a major update that we believe will make Built.io Flow Enterprise a lot more valuable to teams, companies, and individuals. This update includes some highly-requested features, security enhancements, and great UI changes ‒ all to give users the best tools to build awesome integrations faster.

Here are the highlights of this release:

Projects ‒ a new home for your workflows

We have introduced ‘Projects’ to help you keep your workflows organized. Workflows reside within Projects, an each Project has a separate configuration. This makes it easier for you to categorize similar or relevant workflows and collaborate better within teams.

‘Projects’ is the first thing you will notice after signing in to your account. Built.io Flow Enterprise provides a ‘Default’ project, within which you can find all your existing workflows. You can also create new projects and create new workflows within them.

Introducing Organizations for better collaboration

Now, you can manage all the workflows, projects, and users of your company or team from one single administrative panel. Introducing organizations, the highest entity in the Built.io Flow hierarchy that holds all the resources associated with your team. With organizations, you can:

Invite users to collaborate in your organization

Assign role-based access for projects to users

Create shared authorizations for projects

Enable Single Sign-On (SSO) login for your organization

Manage your organization resources such as projects, users, workflows from a single panel

Enhance your data security with Single Sign-On

Built.io Flow Enterprise now supports Single Sign-On (SSO). SSO is an authentication method that lets you login to multiple applications using a single set of credentials. You can enable SSO for your organization in Built.io Flow Enterprise by integrating it with your SAML 2.0-based identity provider (IdP) . This enables your organization users to login to Built.io Flow Enterprise using their corporate IdP credentials, which makes the login process much quicker and secure.

Try out these features and let us know what you think. For any assistance or help, write to us at support-flow@built.io.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/new-year-new-featureshttps://www.built.io/blog/new-year-new-featuresMon, 01 Jan 2018 00:00:00 GMTCongratulations to Neha Sampat, who was recognized earlier this week by the Stevie Awards for Women in Business with a Silver Stevie Award in the Female Entrepreneur of the Year - Business Services category. This award celebrates Neha’s leadership and stewardship of Built.io, which has grown to more than 200 employees over the last four years, and her advocacy on behalf of women in the technology industry.

The Stevie Awards for Women in Business are the world’s top honors for female entrepreneurs, executives, employees and the organizations they run. All individuals and organizations worldwide are eligible to submit nominations – public and private, for-profit and non-profit, large and small. The 2017 awards received entries from 25 nations and territories. More than 1,500 nominations from organizations of all sizes and in virtually every industry were submitted this year for consideration in more than 90 categories.

In recognizing Neha’s achievements, the judging panel noted that she is a proponent of diversity and an outspoken supporter of nurturing women leaders in the tech industry. She established Built.io’s female mentorship program and has made it company policy to seek out and develop female talent in an otherwise male-dominated industry. Despite breaking with traditions and shattering all perceivable glass ceilings, Neha remains a humble, affable leader, always eager to share her experiences, lessons learned and to mentor students and young entrepreneurs. She has been instrumental in sponsoring the University Mobile Challenge in association with the Applied Innovation Institute and U.C. Berkeley, which helps students pitch and build their first startup. In India, she has worked closely with local leadership to ensure the growing team of female technical staff thrives.

Her business acumen has been instrumental in building an impressive client roster, which includes leading technology brands including Cisco and VMware, as well as consumer brands like Parrot and NBA teams, the Sacramento Kings and Miami Heat. Built.io’s continued growth continued even during the last recession, and today, the company operates profitably without ever having taken outside funding. Neha’s conviction of building a business that is 100% customer-funded has created something very rare and unique in Silicon Valley.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/neha-sampat-honored-among-best-women-in-businesshttps://www.built.io/blog/neha-sampat-honored-among-best-women-in-businessThu, 30 Nov 2017 00:00:00 GMTAs an exciting continuation to Built.io’s involvement in the Sacramento Kings and Golden 1 Center App project, we are happy to share that our partner M&C Saatchi LA is a “Best in Show” winner of the W³ Awards. The W³ Awards honor the creative and marketing professionals behind award-winning websites, web video and online marketing programs, and we are proud that M&C Saatchi LA credited Built.io’s Digital Fan Experience Platform for helping build the app.

To develop the Sacramento Kings and Golden 1 Center App project and deliver on the expectations for the new arena, Built.io worked very closely with M&C Saatchi LA. The combination of Built.io’s award-winning technology platform and M&C Saatchi LA’s specialization in concepting and building custom fan experiences, apps and digital solutions for winning sports brands made the collaboration highly successful.

There were a lot of expectations with this project since it was being built for the world’s most connected sports and entertainment venue. The goal was to develop a tool for fans that assured a seamless, intuitive experience from the moment they woke up on a game or concert day to the time they went home. We’re proud that the app’s final result was so well-received.

Other winning submissions in the 2017 W³ Award program include Habitat For Humanity’s website, Accuweather’s iOS app and the San Diego Zoo’s centennial website.

“Our Digital Fan Experience Platform was recognized by the @W3Awards. Exciting to be part of the winning Sacramento Kings app project!”

“We’re proud to say that Built.io’s Digital Fan Experience Platform is part of @MCSAATCHILA winning submission for the @W3Awards!”

“@SacramentoKings project was a great win for our Digital Fan Experience Platform. Now we’re recognized by @W3Awards!“

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/builtio-work-for-sacramento-kings-is-credited-in-w3award-winhttps://www.built.io/blog/builtio-work-for-sacramento-kings-is-credited-in-w3award-winWed, 08 Nov 2017 00:00:00 GMTThis week, we released a set of powerful new features for Contentstack. Here's the summary of the updates:

Bringing “Organization” Aboard

Introducing Organization, a single dashboard to manage all your users and your sites. An Organization contains all of the elements – stacks, users etc. – available in Contentstack. All stacks (and the resources within) of a group or a company now belong to an Organization, giving you better control over your subscription. You can add new users to your Organization, assign roles, view overall usage, and macro-manage your project with ease. Read more about its features or learn how it works.

Image Delivery API - Edit Images on the Fly

Using this new API, you can perform dynamic actions on saved images by passing simple parameters. Some of the actions that you can perform on images are resize and/or crop, change device pixel ratio or quality, reorient images, or place an overlay image.

Introducing New SDKs

With the addition of four new SDKs to its arsenal, Contentstack is now stronger, better, and more powerful than ever. We have introduced Java, Ruby, PHP and React Native SDKs, so that developers can choose from a wide range of platforms to create awesome projects powered by Contentstack.

Go through our documentation to get started with your favorite language

Set Limits to Multi-Valued Fields

We have introduced a new field parameter, ‘Set Maximum Limit’ for the ‘Multiple’ field. The ‘Set Maximum Limit’ property allows you to limit the maximum number of instances that can be created for the Multiple field. If a user tries to create instances that exceed the specified limit, they will be warned about it. Read more about this feature.

You can try all new features immediately and we’d love to hear your thoughts on these enhancements. You can send us feedback and ask us questions by contacting support-contentstack@built.io.

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]]>https://www.built.io/blog/announcing-organization-image-delivery-api-and-new-sdkshttps://www.built.io/blog/announcing-organization-image-delivery-api-and-new-sdksSat, 14 Oct 2017 00:00:00 GMTWhen it comes to websites or apps, images are one of the most powerful ways of representing ideas and attracting visitors. Unfortunately, images often comprise the major portion of the data downloaded when loading a webpage or app. Hence, it is critical to optimize your images and their delivery to suit the respective channel (e.g. mobile, web, IoT) and destination device (browser, smartwatch, mobile app) to offer the best performance and user experience.

We’re excited to introduce you to the Image Delivery API: your magic tool to modify images on the fly.

Today we’re introducing a new set of APIs that let you manipulate and optimize images while delivering them as content to your site or app.

By adding parameters to the delivered Image URL, you can enhance the quality of the image, create thumbnails, trim, resize, crop, change format, and do a lot more. When you do this, the transformations happens on the fly, and the manipulated images are cached in the CDN for future use.

By using the images API, you can deliver several different versions of the same image to your website or app without replacing the original image saved in your CMS database.

So what can you modify with the Image Delivery API?

Quite a bit… here’s the full list::

Resize (set height and width)

Crop

Trim

Reorient

Convert format

Control quality

Automate optimization

Overlay image

Add padding and canvas

Apply background color

Change device pixel ratio

You can also combine parameters to perform multiple actions at once.

How can you try the new Image Delivery API

To best understand how to use the new Image Delivery API, we recommend you visit our documentation site, where you can learn about and try each parameter. Once you get the hang of it, you can use these functions in your app by adding the parameters to your image URLs.

In our last release dated 14th October 2017 we introduced a new feature called ‘Organization’ which adds a new level of management to your Contentstack account. In short, it acts as a parent entity that encapsulates stacks (and all the resources stored within), making it simpler to manage multiple stacks belonging to the same company or group. It’s like a single administrative panel for all your stacks and users.

Organization overview

The Organization feature comes packed with a slew of benefits:

One Organization equals one subscription plan

Organization brings all stacks that belong to your company into one single billing account. There may be several users, stacks and projects within this organization. But these are now billed collectively for the entire organization you own.

A dashboard for all your users and stacks

All the stacks and users of your group/company can now be managed from the Organization dashboard. The total usage metrics can be accessed with a single click.

Bird’s eye view of usage

Organizations track the overall usage of your Built.io Contentstack account. It gives you a bird’s eye view of the total usage, including the number of stacks, content types and entries created, users currently associated with the Organization, bandwidth used, and API requests made. This ensures that owners and admin users always have access to the current status and usage of the Organization.

Organizational roles for a better permission system

Organization comes with three predefined roles: Owner, Admin, and Member. The Owner has primary rights and permissions, except they do not have access to stacks that are not owned by or shared with them. The owner can invite new users to the Organization, assign roles to a user, view overall usage, create stacks, and transfer ownership. The Admin has similar permissions, except being able to transfer ownership of the organization. A Member doesn’t have any special permissions in the Organization. A Member user can only work with stacks that are created by or shared with them.

Working with Organizations

With Organizations, you can macro-manage your projects easily. Here’s a list of the things that you can now do.

Switch between Organizations

If you are part of multiple Organizations, you can easily switch between them. Simply click the Organization tab in the header, and select the Organization that you wish to access. Once selected, you will be able to see the stacks of the Organization.

View Organization subscription plans and usage

If you are the owner of an Organization or a user with an Admin role, you can get a quick overview of the usage and limits of your subscription plan by checking the ‘Plans and Usage’ page.

Invite and manage users

Organization gives you one central location to manage users collaborating in Contentstack. It lets you add/remove users, assign Organization-level roles, assign stack-level roles, and so on. Managing users is possible only for the Admin and Owner of an Organization. Here’s a quick snapshot illustrating the addition of a user to your Organization:

Manage stacks

Owners and Admins can see the lists of all the stacks belonging to an Organization. While the Owner can delete any stack from here, he/she cannot view any stack data unless he/she is owner of the stack or a collaborator.

As existing users, what should you do?

Nothing! You don’t have to make any changes to your stack or account. You will automatically become part of an Organization and benefit from the corresponding new capabilities. After logging in to your account, you will see your new Organization name in the header. If you have been assigned an Admin role by the owner, you will be able to access the Organization settings panel. If you are a Member, nothing changes, except that you are part of an Organization now.

In order to keep up with the constant expectations from customers wanting flawless and consistent digital experiences, we’ve partnered with SAP to remove the headache from developing and managing content across all channels.

At its core, the SAP Cloud Platform Portal enables companies to provide holistic digital experiences by building better ways to push content to users. With Built.io Contentstack, content on websites, mobile apps, IoT, etc. can be delivered with the push of a button and instantly optimized for every screen, device and channel. Built.io Contentstack simplifies and accelerates content management by allowing business users to manage and update content across all channels without the hassle and complexity of a traditional content management system (CMS).

We’re very excited about this new partnership and how it will enable SAP customers to seamlessly deploy their headless CMS platforms. By using the SAP Cloud Platform Portal with Built.io Contentstack, companies can create easy-to-use, enterprise-grade websites, portals and mobile applications and conveniently separate the underlying data structure from the presentation layer. This gives companies the ability to organize content logically without being restricted by visual or device considerations.

Here are just some of the benefits SAP customers will see by using Built.io Contentstack:

Guaranteed Uptime: With the CMS decoupled from the website itself, developers can guarantee site uptime and reliability, without any dependency on data being served by the CMS or an underlying database

Reusable Apps: Content managers can create and package components, such as blogs, resource libraries, events etc. that can be shared and reused as microservices

Multi-Environment Deployment: Users can create multiple environments (development, staging, production, etc.) and push content everywhere simultaneously, or to one environment at a time

We are looking forward to the future with our friends at SAP, helping its users enjoy how easy it is to use Built.io Contentstack.

Want to see how it works? Be sure to stop by booth #3 in the Engage section of the SAP Experts and Solution Center at SAP TechEd and check out the live demo of Built.io Contentstack! See Built.io Contentstack mentioned in SAP’s press release and on their blog this morning.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/builtio-contentstack-selected-as-a-preferred-sap-partnerhttps://www.built.io/blog/builtio-contentstack-selected-as-a-preferred-sap-partnerTue, 26 Sep 2017 17:30:00 GMTThe internet of things (IoT) is changing the way people live and work. IoT solutions enable you to connect, monitor, and control digital devices in the cloud so you can do things better, like collect and analyze data. It has forayed into and is bringing radical changes in most major industries, including healthcare, transportation, logistics, automotive, and aviation.

IoT systems, however, cannot work in isolation. The valuable data that IoT systems gather needs to be analyzed, organized, and distributed in a way that creates value for businesses. This can be achieved by connecting the implemented IoT systems with other IoT services, existing business applications, people and processes in a way that is scalable and cost-effective.

Most IoT systems, however, come with limited integration capabilities. In such a scenario, harnessing the power of integration platforms (iPaaS) seem to be an ideal solution.

IoT, Meet iPaaS

The data from IoT devices can be accessed using their APIs. iPaaS, on the other hand, integrates various cloud applications or even devices using REST or SOAP APIs.

In this light, an iPaaS platform can serve as an ideal basis for integrating IoT data with various cloud applications. However, most iPaaS solutions available today are good enough only for accommodating just the initial stages of IoT integration projects. Very few have the capability of providing a silver bullet remedy to this problem.

When choosing an iPaaS platform, it is important to consider a few crucial things. An ideal iPaaS platform is the one that:

Supports cloud, devices and on-premise integrations

Supports extremely high scalability with minimum latency

Has event-driven architecture (since most IoT devices utilize this architecture)

Has adequate customizable in-built tools

Intro To Built.io Flow Enterprise

Built.io Flow Enterprise is one of the leading iPaaS providers that lets you automate complex business and personal tasks.

It offers a number of ready-to-use integrations for your IoT projects and lets you create your own integrations through the supported IoT services. It also supports prominent cloud services such as AWS and has a highly scalable event driven architecture which makes it an ideal candidate for IoT integrations.

While it offers 1000+ actions for integrations, it also provides the feature to build your own custom actions with the inbuilt tools. This means any cloud application or IoT device with an API can be connected using Built.io Flow Enterprise.

By integrating IoT devices with Built.io Flow, you can — charge the Tesla parked in your garage, switch-on the porch lights, set the temperature for your living room thermostat — while you are still sitting at your office.

IoT Inspirations

As IoT becomes more prevalent in our everyday lives – including work – the need to integrate it into our workflows will become more necessary.

Here are some of our favorite IoT demos that highlight how IoT can be leveraged:

J.A.R.V.I.S: Anyone who has seen Iron Man movies is familiar with J.A.R.V.I.S, the awesome A.I. that does all the bidding for Tony Stark. We at Built.io Flow built our own version of J.A.R.V.I.S, which is based on gesture control. To achieve this, all you need is a gesture control device, a Built.io Flow Enterprise account, and an idea to bring J.A.R.V.I.S. to life. Create your own J.A.R.V.I.S.

Speech-controlled Drone: Ever fancied flying your own drone with voice commands? We collaborated with Cisco to build a private-cloud drone that works on Google Home speech commands. Click here to know more about it.

‘Smart’ Pumpkin: Imagine having a pumpkin in your front yard on halloween night that passes funny comments every time someone comes in its proximity. We built this ‘Smart’ pumpkin with Built.io Flow Enterprise and the results were awesome. Here’s a step-by-step guide to build a smart pumpkin this halloween.

IoT Services Supported By Us

As of now, we have integrations available for the following IoT services. You can use these services in any of your workflows to build your own IoT projects.

Amazon Alexa: Amazon Alexa is an intelligent voice assistant that powers Amazon Echo. By using this service with Built.io Flow Entreprise, you can form a custom response (and reprompt) for Alexa.

Cisco Meraki: Cisco Meraki offers products for a wide range of wired and wireless networks. By using this service with Built.io Flow Entreprise, you can get the details of your organization, networks and network devices.

Fitbit: Fitbit provides fitness tracking devices and other wireless-enabled wearable technology devices. By using this service with Built.io Flow Entreprise, you can keep track of your daily activities and get details of your heart rate, blood pressure etc.

Gimbal: Gimbal is a location and proximity-based mobile engagement platform. By using this service with Built.io Flow Entreprise, you can get the details of all applications and communications associated with your account.

LIFX: LIFX is a line of wi-fi enabled bulbs that can be controlled through a wide range of wi-fi equipped devices. By using this service with Built.io Flow Entreprise, you can turn the lights on and off remotely.

Nest: Nest Labs is a home automation company that provides programmable smoke detectors and thermostats. By using this service with Built.io Flow Entreprise, you can set the thermostat, get its details, and get the thermostat device information.

Philips Hue: Philips Hue is a line of color changing LED lights by Philips. By using this service with Built.io Flow Entreprise, you can switch on the lights, set them to color loop, and get the details of all lights.

Tesla: Tesla is an automaker company that specializes in electric cars. By using this service with Built.io Flow Entreprise, you can charge your car, park it, set its temperature and perform a number of other related tasks remotely.

You can also connect with any IoT device that has an API - regardless of whether we have it in the product.

With such a wide arsenal, the capability of this iPaaS platform goes beyond integrating just IoT devices. It can connect to anything with an API or a digital heartbeat.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/integrating-iot-devices-with-ipaas-built-io-flow-enterprisehttps://www.built.io/blog/integrating-iot-devices-with-ipaas-built-io-flow-enterpriseTue, 19 Sep 2017 00:00:00 GMTWhen I was just starting out as a sales rep (SDR) I lived by the mantra that “you only get one first impression, so you better make it count.” Unfortunately, I was also living in Salesforce, drowning in follow-up tasks, and quickly becoming unable to make the best first impression on all my inbound leads. This was a huge threat to our sales funnel because in order to connect with people, you must communicate information that is meaningful to them. If it’s not relevant they won’t give you any of their time. They won’t care. And frankly, why should they?

As a result of our process, I was unable to earnestly reach out to every lead with information that showed them how my company could help them succeed. There was simply not enough time in a day for me to individually create each one of these personal interactions!

Sales managers, we’ve been there, and the math is simple: to be considered “thoroughly worked,” every lead should get at least eight touches. Multiply those touches by 200, 300, 400…1000 leads, and your SDRs are quickly responsible for an overwhelming number of tasks! Without some process for automation, this scenario quickly makes your sales funnel unmanageable.

To help visualize this challenge I am going to use a reality show on the Discovery Channel called Gold Rush, in which teams compete to mine the most gold in the short summer months of the Yukon tundra. To win, their plan is simple – in three months, run as much pay dirt through a wash plant as possible. Whoever can process the most dirt, yielding the highest quantity of gold, wins.

Why this is so relatable to a sales funnel and why I personally have gotten a kick out of watching the show is how one mines gold: you prospect a claim (target demographics), transport the pay dirt (leads) to your wash-plant (sales funnel), where the pay dirt is put through a series of different filters and washes (a qualification process), first blocking out boulders that would damage the wash-plant (not sales prospects), and then funneling the condensed pay dirt through your sleuth boxes (opportunity funnel) where the fought after gold (customer) is captured.

Just like a wash-plant, a sales funnel is only effective and profitable when it is able to consistently and continuously work through all the leads being fed into it – if unqualified boulders sneak into your funnel, or you’re not able to process out all the disqualified opportunities, you will quickly become unable to process new inbound leads, or unable to close all of your qualified opportunities – causing you to miss out on gold that is now spilling over the sides of your wash plant and likely falling into the hands of your competitors!

Similarly, before Outreach arrived on the scene, I was frantically shoveling through follow-up tasks, trying to keep my Salesforce wash-plant from sinking into the ground on which it sat. At one point I had so many follow-up emails and calls–not to mention a daily inbound flow of 20 new MQLs–that I was literally working 9 hours straight and unable to keep up. Burnout sucks, and nothing will kill a good SDR quicker than mindless, arduous data entry.

The killer was something we can all relate to – I was wasting the majority of my time with mundane data entry and engagement tracking. Doing the math I calculated on average it was taking approximately three and a half minutes to research the lead’s history, make the call or email, document the activity, and setup a follow-up reminder. Again, at scale, that is a massive amount of time for your SDRs to have to dedicate to non-revenue generating activities!

Then, like air conditioning on a hot summer day, Outreach arrived. Their initial idea was brilliant enough – automate all of the touch points and task management that goes into working leads through the qualification process. Immediately this made a massive impact on the amount of workload that could be processed, allowed me to make a great first impression with every inbound lead, and scaled my lead management from 350 to 600+ leads.

However, Outreach is more than just a revelation to the sales development process: it is a mechanism that can help facilitate the entire customer journey from lead to opportunity and, most excitingly for me, to an end user’s implementation and customer lifecycle.

With the proliferation of the SaaS model, it is clear that no relationship is ever set in stone. As much as that first impression is important, the long-term success of any customer relationship will be determined by the user’s overall adoption of your product/service, and by how satisfied they are with your customer experience, “I’ll buy from you until I find someone else I like to buy from more.” It is because of this shift in the buy/seller power dynamic that this long-tail portion of the customer lifecycle has become so incredibly important.

Now to state something that may be obvious. The biggest risk to any renewal funnel is a lack of insight into your users’ adoption. This insight could be anything qualitative and quantitative, from usage events, NPS scores, to open tickets – not having end user insight leaves your customer base incredibly vulnerable to churn. Said a different way, the biggest challenge for your customers’ is you not knowing where they are in their product lifecycle because this prevents you from properly educating and enabling them to succeed with your product!

Again we’ve all been there at the end of the quarter, it’s time for the customer renewal conversation. Who’s in, who’s out, and who needs to be saved? Can anyone be upsold? Eventually there is always one customer (if you’re lucky it’s only one) where no one on your team knows if they are happy or not, if the account is adopting the product or not – there is no window into the account, or any of the users propensity to renew with your product.

Most often the root cause of this lack of insight is a disparate web of microservices – all individually purchased to support the customer journey, but unable to properly work together in order to achieve the business objectives originally outlined. This is a challenge that every organization is facing today. With the proliferation of subscription softwares, how do we optimize their business value with our customer experience?

To solve this paradigm for our customers, we have integrated Built.io Flow with Outreach in order to power the entire customer journey, and incorporating our entire library of customer tracking and engagement tools into Outreach. This level of connectivity and messaging automation is going to shake the foundations of what we thought it meant to manage a customer journey.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/mining-for-gold-with-outreachhttps://www.built.io/blog/mining-for-gold-with-outreachWed, 13 Sep 2017 00:00:00 GMTNot long ago, a compelling website was a company’s main – and for many, the only – concern on the path to embracing ‘digital’. Nowadays, a sleek website alone does not cut it anymore and instead, organizations are faced with engaging their audiences via a plethora of digital channels, transcending mobile and IoT, spanning a huge variety of screen types and sizes, and increasingly pushing the boundaries of end user experiences through novel technology such as AR and VR.

Because of these trends and changes, many organizations and content providers are applying new technology to deal with the age-old challenge of delivering the right information, at the right time to the right place & person. A powerful tool in this quest turns out to be a new class of content management systems, variably dubbed API-first headless/decoupled CMS, since this solution provides the flexibility to deliver content in realtime on any channel.

Benefits Of Headless CMS

Even if you don’t have a plan for the future and omnichannel production, headless CMS is still an extremely helpful choice for the web – and when the time comes to make the leap to mobile, IoT, AR, VR and beyond... you’ll be ready.

A headless CMS architecture is built to be flexible, since it’s API-based. Being able to point content to any screen is the single best way to prepare content providers for the future of all screens.

Here are a few concrete advantages of leveraging a headless CMS when it comes to delivering content across any channel.

Think Past Mobile And Web

Even if your audience is primarily on the web today, eventually you’ll need to go beyond your site and foray into mobile or IoT. Smart organizations have already shifted toward a mobile-first mentality, since that’s where most people search. But soon, web, and even mobile, won’t be enough. Organizations need to start thinking about creating engaging digital experiences and providing content on all sorts of screens, devices and mediums, like marketing kiosks, in-store displays, wearable devices and so on. With a headless CMS, you can point content anywhere, since APIs are endpoint-agnostic – meaning you’ll be prepared for whatever device is the next big thing.

Create Once, Publish Everywhere

In a decoupled architecture, content is not tied to any frontend. Instead, it’s stored as data in the CMS’s repository. This data can then be delivered to any channel through APIs.

This means the content that you write once can be reused across multiple content channels. What you’ve put together on your website can be repurposed as you expand into other channels, like a VR headset or any other frontend that can accept JSON data.

Build Faster

Whether you’re starting a new project, redesigning one or launching in phases, a headless CMS helps you build (i.e. develop) quickly.

You can start by launching a simple static website, and then gradually make it more dynamic by adding different pages in the CMS later (for instance, after a soft launch). When you’re ready, you can deliver the same content to your mobile app, perhaps once the app designs are completed).

With a traditional or legacy CMS, this process would not be possible. To achieve a similar result, you’d first need to create a static HTML prototype and then convert it into the template that the CMS understands.

Ultimately, working with a headless CMS means you’ll be able shave off a lot of time that you’d otherwise spend dealing with a system – which means you can go to market faster.

The way we get information is changing dramatically and businesses have to keep up.

Websites are no longer a single source of content delivery; a best practice is to adopt technologies like an API-first headless CMS that will free your content from the shackles of the traditional approach.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/future-proof-your-content-why-every-enterprise-should-consider-a-headless-cmshttps://www.built.io/blog/future-proof-your-content-why-every-enterprise-should-consider-a-headless-cmsTue, 12 Sep 2017 00:00:00 GMTBuilt.io Flow Enterprise is an integration platform that lets you connect your favorite cloud applications, platforms or IoT devices or enabling you to orchestrate and automate business workflows.

Apart from performing routine tasks like organizing meetings, analyzing sales and marketing data, and managing projects, you can leverage Built.io Flow Enterprise to automate complex tasks that would otherwise demand a lot of time and effort if performed manually.

As an example, we’ll show you how to migrate tens of thousands of records from one system to another automatically to avoid human error and to save time. The data can be migrated from cloud to cloud, on-prem to on-prem, cloud to on-prem or on-prem to cloud.

How It Works

Below we’ve shared how to build a workflow that migrates bulk data from one system to another. The workflow traverses through 3 main stages to migrate data.

Stage 1. Split all records in batches and send them for processing

Get the total number of records from the source system and split them in batches. For example, if there are 10,000 total records, you can split them in 20 batches so that each batch contains 500 records. Since the workflow can send the records of only one batch at a time (500 records) for processing, run the same flow recursively (20 times) till all the batches are sent for processing.

Stage 2. Process each batch using Batch API

If the destination system has an API to process data in batches, you can use it to process the whole set of records in a batch and upload the whole batch at the destination system at once

Stage 3. Process one record at a time for each batch

If the destination system doesn’t have a batch API, you will need to iterate through all the batch records (in this case, 500 records), one record at a time and call the same workflow recursively (500 times) till all the records are updated to the destination system.

Migrating Bulk Data From Different Environments

Now that we know how the process of data migration works in Built.io Flow Enterprise, let’s move on to creating the workflow. We will do this with the help of two examples.

Example 1: Migrating Data From A Cloud System

Let’s say you want to migrate 1000 records from your MongoDB instance hosted on cloud to any other system. To do so, you will need to create the following workflow in your Built.io Flow Enterprise account.

In this workflow, we first retrieve all the records from the MongoDB instance and split those records in batches. We will then set up conditions which will process these records one batch at a time and will update them to the destination system.

Configurator Variables To Look Out For

Here are all of the config variables used in this workflow along with their details:

stage: Current stage of the workflow. By default it is set to ‘0’.

stage_0_split: Maximum number of records to be processed in ‘stage_1’. By default it is set to ‘100’.

stage_1_split: Maximum number of records to be uploaded in bulk at a time (stage_1). Alternatively you can also upload the records one by one using single upload (stage_2). For single upload, the default and maximum limit is set to ‘100’.

initial_offset: Offset of the record from which the migration should start. By default, it is set to ‘0’.

webhook_url: Webhook URL which will trigger the workflow initially. It will also be used to generate the restart URL and run workflow recursively in case of an error. You need to enable the Webhook trigger first.

bulk_export: Specifies if the records should be migrated in bulk or one record at a time. Set this value to ‘False’ if you are migrating single record at a time. By default, it is set to ‘True’.

error_mail_id: Email ID to which the error message and the stage restart URL should be sent.

Workflow Steps

Below are the step you’ll need to take to take advantage of this workflow. You can configure, use, and modify the steps as per your requirements:

1. Stage_0:

In this stage, we will retrieve the count of the records we need to migrate and will split them in batches. We will then run a loop recursively to send these batches for processing, one batch at a time.

Get Count: Configure the ‘HTTP Request’ action with the required authentication and settings to get the total count of the records from the source system. You can replace this block with the in-built flow actions. If you already know the count of the records, you can remove this block and add the count to the next block instead.

Offset Calculator: This block determines the offset for each batch to be passed on to the next stage.

Required Config Parameter:

Total Objects: Insert the total count of records in this field or pass the total count from previous block.

Trigger Stage 1 Loop: This block triggers ‘stage_1’ for the current batch in processing.

2. Stage_1:

In this stage, we will upload the records of the batch to destination system by using its bulk API.

Get Batch: Configure the ‘HTTP Request’ action with the required authentication and settings to get the batch you want to process. Also use ‘$config.params.stage_0_split’ to set limit on the records to be migrated at a time and use ‘$config.params.offset’ which is sent by the previous stage to use as ‘skip’ or ‘offset’ in the get batch call. You can replace this block by using in-built flow actions.

Transformation And Split Calculation: Add transformation logic within the marked function and set the path for data if the batch data is nested.

The next three blocks are executed in loop till all the the records are uploaded to the destination system via bulk API.

Upload Batch: Configure the bulk upload ‘HTTP Request’ and use the output from the previous block. You can replace this block by using the in-built flow actions.

Store Error Message: Add logic to capture the record offset and record index at which the error occurred. Also store the stage restart URL (which will be used to reprocess the record/batch at which the error occurred) and specify the error message and response code that you wish to send.

If the destination system doesn’t have a bulk API, you can remove the above three block from your workflow.

Trigger Stage 2 Loop: If it is not a bulk upload, this block will trigger ‘stage_2’ for the current batch in processing.

3. Stage_2

In this stage, we will iterate through all records of the batch, and will upload it to destination system one record at a time.

Single Upload: Configure the single upload HTTP block for a single record upload.

Store Error Message: Add logic to capture the record offset and record index at which the error occurred. Also store the stage restart URL and specify the error message and response code you wish to display.

After this, add a ‘JSON to HTML’ block to convert the JSON error message data (which can be retrieved through ‘Store Error Message’ block of ‘stage_1’ and ‘stage_2’) in HTML format and send this data to the intended user through ‘Send an Email’ action.

Once all the workflow configurations are done, enable your workflow’s webhook and save it.. You can now use this workflow to migrate data between two systems.

Example 2: Migrating Data From An On-Prem System Secured With A Firewall

If the data is behind a firewall on on-prem,you can use ‘Enterprise Gateway’. Enterprise Gateway creates a secure connection between Built.io Flow Enterprise and your source system so that you can access the data securely. (To enable ‘Enterprise Gateway’ for your account, contact us at support-flow@built.io). Once Enterprise Gateway is enabled for your account, you can use the ‘Enterprise Connector’ to migrate data from your on-premise database or application. Here’s the workflow for migrating data using Enterprise Connector.

When you run any of these workflows, the specified records will be migrated to the destination system.

Video Tutorial

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/how-to-migrate-bulk-data-with-builtio-flow-enterprisehttps://www.built.io/blog/how-to-migrate-bulk-data-with-builtio-flow-enterpriseWed, 23 Aug 2017 17:00:00 GMTWe are proud to introduce some exciting new updates on how assets are managed in Built.io Contentstack.

Asset Versioning

We now offer versioning for assets. Similar to how we have been managing versioning for entries, whenever an asset is updated, a new version is created and the previous one is saved as an older version. With this new feature, you can track the history of all asset versions and can restore any previous version of an asset.

Asset Versioning In Action

Here's how this works.

Creating a new version of an asset

To create a new version of an existing asset, go to the ‘Asset Details’ page, make the required changes by uploading a new asset, and then click the 'Update' button. This will create a new version of the asset. You will need to publish the latest version to see the changes in your website or app.

Restoring an older version of an asset

To restore an older version of an asset, click on the 'History' link in the ‘Version’ tab located on the top-right corner of the asset page. Then, click the 'View' link located beside the asset version. A preview of the previous version will appear, you can modify this version or publish it.

New Fields For Assets

In addition to asset versioning, we've implemented two new fields, ‘Title’ and ‘Description’, to asset creation to help you better organize your assets. These fields allow you to include descriptions of each asset file. Note that changing the title or description of an existing asset (and subsequently saving it) creates a new version of the asset.

New ‘Product Updates’ Page

We have also introduced a new section called ‘Product Updates’ to highlight new features and important updates to Built.io Contentstack so you’re always up-to-date and can take advantage of the latest improvements.

To access this section, login to your Built.io Contentstack account and click on your profile name on the top right-hand side corner of the page. Then, select ‘Product Updates’.

Try this new feature and please let us know your thoughts. You can send us feedback and ask us questions by contacting support-contentstack@built.io.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/builtio-contentstack-introducing-asset-versioning-and-morehttps://www.built.io/blog/builtio-contentstack-introducing-asset-versioning-and-moreMon, 21 Aug 2017 00:00:00 GMTSelenium is one of the most popular and efficient browser automation tools available today. With Selenium Web Driver, it automates several (browser) actions, such as opening a webpage, clicking a link, checking the URL, and so on.

But there are cases when you may need to run automation tests in ‘headless’ mode, i.e., when no browser is being displayed. In these cases, you can execute Selenium tests in headless browsers.

What Is A Headless Browser?

A headless browser is a browser simulation program that does not have a user interface. These programs operate like any other browser, but do not display any UI. When Selenium tests are run, it executes in the background.

While there are several such headless browsers available in the market, the following are the most popular ones:

Headless Chrome

PhantomJS

SlimerJS

TrifleJS

HTMLUnit driver

Three Benefits Of Headless Browser Testing

1. Improves speed and performance

Since this type of testing does not actually open a browser, the system saves the processing power that would otherwise be used in a real browser test. Consequently, the tests are executed faster.

2. Allows testing browserless setups

There may be setups where installing a browser is not possible, such as servers. In these cases, headless browsers help run automation tests easily.

3. Helps you multitask

You can use your browser or your machine to do anything else while the tests run in the background. Save hours of time that is otherwise spent staring at the screen.

How To Run Selenium Tests In Headless Google Chrome

Google recently introduced a headless option for Chrome. It is available from version 59. So, if you are planning to run headless tests, you need Google Chrome browser with version 59 or above.

Before you can begin testing, there are a couple of things you’ll need to install first:

Java

Selenium

ChromeDriver (latest)

ChromeOptions is a class in Selenium to set the arguments to ChromeDriver. In the following example, we will pass the two arguments to ChromeDriver to run in headless mode.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/run-selenium-tests-in-headless-browserhttps://www.built.io/blog/run-selenium-tests-in-headless-browserThu, 17 Aug 2017 17:00:00 GMTSometimes when you are building a workflow, you may only want an action to run when one condition is—or multiple conditions are—met. For example, say you want to send a Cisco Spark notification when an incoming email contains certain keywords. You can achieve this by using workflow filters.

Filters let you add conditions in your workflow. They let you define ‘proceed only if’ statements, which essentially mean that the workflow will only execute if the defined conditions are met. Workflow filters help you eliminate unnecessary workflow executions, allow you to filter out clutter, and better specify the data or information you want to receive.

Now, let us look at different ways in which we can apply filters!

Two Ways To Use Workflow Filters

1. Apply filters to a trigger.

Let’s say you want to get an email for each new note in your Evernote account only if the note contains the word ‘Important’ in the title.

To do this, set up a workflow with the following trigger and action:

Trigger: Evernote - New Note Action: Gmail - Send an Email

The trigger initiates whenever a new note is created in Evernote, and the action will deliver a message to an email account you specify. In this how-to, we will use ‘Gmail.’

How to configure your trigger

]]>

https://www.built.io/blog/add-conditional-logic-to-your-workflows-using-filtershttps://www.built.io/blog/add-conditional-logic-to-your-workflows-using-filtersWed, 09 Aug 2017 17:00:00 GMTAt Built.io we get a lot of questions about what exactly a connected fan experience means.

Different Experiences, Based on Your Audience

Connected experiences will always vary based on your audience needs. That’s why it’s important to leverage technology that supports APIs and microservices through integration. This way you can use one tried and tested platform to incorporate any technology you want, rather than having to suffer through a cookie cutter solution.

That said, over the years we’ve found there are a few key elements that you should consider in helping to define what it means to build a connected venue.

A Framework For A Connected Experience

Consider the below to be an MPV, or Minimally Viable Product.

Seamlessness

In a connected venue, every aspect of the environment should “just work”. Examples of this might include cool technology like ticketless, frictionless entry, indoor maps, sensors and beacons to help guide people to their parking spots, seats, bathrooms, or vendors, deals and coupons sent in real-time, and more.

Under the hood, the technology you need to support connecting all of your systems, microservices, and data is an iPaaS (integration Platform-as-a-Service) like Built.io Flow.

In Venue, Mobile and at Home

A connected fan experience doesn’t start and stop at venue. Your app should be useful both in the venue, on the go, and especially at home.

To a degree, this dovetails off the concept of seamlessness. You want to connect the physical and digital worlds of home and in-venue so that a fan can access stats, news, betting, deals, tickets, and more – at any given time. Think of your app as an “always-on” concierge or the remote control to their experience.

Intelligent and Predictive Experience

An app should anticipate what you want and where you’re going. A connected experience in this context might mean a bot or a push notification letting you know that you’ll need to order a drink in the last quarter because the bar will close, and ask you if you want to go ahead and purchase – right in your app.

By leveraging machine learning, an intelligent app could build personas and present different information based on what kind of attendee you are. If you’re a huge sports fan and you open your app several times a day, you should be shown game stats first. But if you’re more of a concert and venue attendee, you might prefer to see the performance schedule first instead. If you’re a vegetarian, you’d want to see an indoor map sharing the best vegetarian food options. By providing tailored experiences, you’re really creating an unforgettable fan experience.

Tips For How to Build Your Own Connected Fan Experience

It’s important to remember that In order for all your services to “just work,” you’ll need to make sure your organization takes an API-first and microservices approach to architecture. You can think of this as the building blocks to connectivity, since APIs are what powers all things digital.

Additionally, you need to connect all your services through an iPaaS (integration Platform-as-a-Service), among a number of other steps like vetting your vendors properly, overestimating your budget, and hiring people who are smarter than you.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/what-is-a-connected-fan-experience-anywayhttps://www.built.io/blog/what-is-a-connected-fan-experience-anywayThu, 27 Jul 2017 00:00:00 GMTDovetailing our panel at SEAT Atlanta, we’re participating in a Twitter chat to dive into what it takes to build a connected venue, build mobile apps that are “sticky”, incorporate new technology like sensors, beacons, VR and AR, and how to deliver an unforgettable fan experience.

The event will take place on Twitter on Thursday, July 27 from 10AM-11AM Pacific Time and 1PM-2PM Eastern Time. We encourage you to bring your questions about sports technology, connected venues, IoT, mobile apps, and more. To join the conversation, follow our handles and the hashtag #SportsTechChat.

The chat will be led by Paul Kapustka (@paulkaps) of Mobile Sports Report and will feature:

Sacramento Kings

Andrew Nicholson, Senior Director, Digital & Integration Communications, will join us to share insight into the award-winning dual app that serves as the remote control to Golden 1 Center and the Sacramento Kings experience.

Stay tuned for more details, and follow us and the hashtag #SportsTechChat to participate.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/save-the-date-twitter-chat-july-27-with-sacramento-kings-miami-heat-built-io-and-beyondcurious-sportstechchathttps://www.built.io/blog/save-the-date-twitter-chat-july-27-with-sacramento-kings-miami-heat-built-io-and-beyondcurious-sportstechchatTue, 25 Jul 2017 00:00:00 GMTWe’re happy to announce Built.io Flow just won the 2017 API Award in the API Middleware category for the second year in a row!

Built.io Flow delivers the industry’s first end-to-end integration and automation suite that supports users of all technical levels, from those will no/low code skillsets on the business side to highly technical users in development or IT. With Built.io Flow, anyone can easily create sophisticated workflows that automate complex business processes, deliver critical data to the right place at the right time, and support faster innovation across any organization.

This year the 2017 API Awards advisory board received hundreds of nominations, but selected Built.io Flow based on three criteria: reputation in the API industry, recent media coverage and innovativeness of the API initiatives.

The 2017 API Awards exist in conjunction with the API World Conference and Expo, taking place in San Jose, CA September 23-28. It is an honor to be awarded an API Award for Built.io Flow for the second year in a row, as API World is the industry’s largest event.

"Built.io Flow is a great example of how more and more of the tech industry is realizing that APIs are not just how we integrate tools and apps; APIs are the new way of doing business and building revolutionary technologies,” said Geoff Domoracki, founder of API World.

This recognition follows several other award wins for Built.io Flow, including the 2016 Stevie International Business Award for Best New B2B Product, the 2016 StackWorld ScaleUp Award and a 2016 Best in Biz Award.

We’ll accept the award for Built.io Flow at the API World VIP Reception on September 25. Interested in attending the API World conference with us? Sign up here for a FREE Expo PLUS Pass.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/yet-again-built-io-flow-takes-home-a-2017-api-awardhttps://www.built.io/blog/yet-again-built-io-flow-takes-home-a-2017-api-awardThu, 20 Jul 2017 00:00:00 GMTBuilding a connected space that will be relevant in 25 years is tough, but that’s what sports teams are tasked with when they’re building a new venue. When you’re spending over half a billion dollars on a new building, you need it to make a splash in the news, ensure it works as promised (which is easier said than done), exceeds expectations and impresses every day, all while ensuring investment protection so that your tech doesn’t become obsolete in a few years. In 1992, do you think anyone building an arena thought that every fan would have an internet connection over 2,000 times faster than the building they were constructing in their pocket?

So how then do you plan for your technology needs in a quarter of a century? Below are the key steps I’ve found that help sports venues set themselves up for success before building a connected space that will build-in innovation and the ability to infuse new technology on the fly to stay relevant.

A recipe for success

If you’re looking to build a connected space that will support future iterations without breaking the bank, particularly in the sports world, consider this step by step guide.

Step 1. Begin at the end

Begin at the end and then work backwards. The first thing to do is select your target launch date. Remember, it’s great to push boundaries and shoot for the stars but you have a hard deadline so be realistic. If you decide to open for a specific season, you’ll have tens of thousands of fans in your arena on opening night even if you don’t have working WiFi. You’ll obviously see the regular setbacks in development timelines but with connected venues it’s much more than just a regular building construction.

Step 2. Define your top goals

Now you’re really getting started. Defining the top three goals for your venue. This will help set you upf for success. When defining your goals, we recommend getting everyone with a say in one room: owners, managers, c-suite, etc. to collectively create the core goals of the new venue. While completing this exercise, it’s just as important to define things that are not important to avoid feature creep over time.

Step 3. Hire people who are smarter than you

It’s important to remember that you’re connecting a bunch of specific pieces into a smart, connected venue and there isn’t a blueprint for that (yet). You’re trying something new so you’ll hit roadblocks and problems that no one else has even tried resolving. How do you solve the problems you don’t know about, don’t understand, and don’t have anyone to turn to for help? By hiring people smarter than you.

Make sure to hire experts in infrastructure, connectivity, hardware, software, integrations and more. If you don’t have budget for internal headcount, find partners with a proven track record and an understanding of your vision. Everyone needs to understand the core goals of your connected sports venue because they will individually make trade-offs and decisions that you need to trust align with your core goal. Know what you don’t yet understand and make sure to learn enough to figure out what questions you should be answering, answer them, and then start building.

Step 4. Invest in an iPaaS

People generally agree that building a smart, connected venue isn’t easy, but they’re mistaken when they think all the technology needed is readily available. Most of the individual building blocks you’ll need to fulfill your vision do exist today, but they aren’t usually ready to be connected, and they most likely aren’t production ready yet. That’s the reality when you’re building the future. This is the phase in which you’ll need to integrate everything. Don’t waste any more time or resources by trying to build this infrastructure yourself; instead invest in a good, enterprise-grade integration Platform-as-a-Service so you can get started immediately in connecting all of the microservices, IoT devices, and products your team will leverage to build your event space.

Most of the systems you’ll try to connect are going to buggy and lack the proper connection end points. You’ll need to deal with all kinds of hardware, every software technology and programming interface. While whiteboarding your game plan, one of the phases will be “connect system”. That sounds easy, and you may even allot a whole quarter for the integration, but don’t kid yourself. Integrations almost always take three times as long as planned and cost five times the expected cost. When you’re doing something that’s never been done before, remember to double that.

Step 5. Make sure you’re vetting your vendors with due diligence

It’s absolutely critical that you pick the right vendors early in the selection process. Because of the sunk cost and the drop dead date for opening day, you won’t be able to change your mind. ever trust a PowerPoint presentation or documentation that says something’s working; insist on seeing a vendor’s working POC. Even if you’re partnering with a billion dollar tier-1 provider who’s been around for a decade, that’s absolutely no guarantee that their tech will do what you want or that it’s modern and dependable in the way that you want it to. They may have a strong sales presence and a stellar professional services group, but even a 15 second delay is an eternity when the NBA outputs game stats every 5 seconds today. Who knows, in 10 years, you may be tracking a player’s heartbeat with 10 millisecond delays. At that point, a 15 second delay will be laughable.

“In 10 years, you may be tracking a player’s heartbeat with 10 millisecond delays. At that point, a 15 second delay will be laughable.” - Gal Oppenheimer

Step 6: Choose your core technology

When picking your technology, there’s a few core components you absolutely have to get right from the get go. First, plan for as much bandwidth as feasibly possible. There’s a reason every connected venue you hear about is planning for twice as much bandwidth as the previous venue: data created doubles in size every 2 years. That means data created will be 5,000 times larger in 25 years than it is today.

Second, wifi needs to be available everywhere, it needs to be fast, reliable, but most importantly, it needs to be easy to connect to and use. If you require the user to agree to terms every time they connect, by the 5th time their iMessage will fail to send, they’ll just disconnect from your Wifi. That means they’re on a cellular connection which likely sucks and instead of sharing more on Facebook, and Snapchat (or whatever VR/AR tech takes off), they’ll complain about the connectivity.

Step 7: Build-in data harvesting to make agile decisions

You need to invest heavily in the tools that will help you succeed. Promote collaboration across teams, vendors, and partners through realtime data integration. Once you have the data you need, learn how to analyze it and act on it quickly. This allows you to invest in quick bets alongside your long-term project. If you’re trying something new, maybe something for fans, launch it in a single section or on a single floor and see how it takes. If you wait until it’s absolutely perfect, you wasted cycles, budget, and time. It’s better to launch something with a few bugs that you can iterate and fix than spin cycles on something that you thought was revolutionary but ultimately had no need.

Step 8: Build-in the “wow” factor

It’s important to remember that you’re building for consumers. If it doesn’t “just work” people won’t try very hard to make something work. That doesn’t mean that everything needs to be perfect. Your fans are human and they can’t wait to try something new that no one else has done. For example, selfies are really hot right now, but they probably won’t be in a few years. Tease the future, build a unique new experience for fans quickly. But remember you’ll need to find something new after a month when it won’t be cool or exciting anymore. This approach works great for fan experiences, but it would kill your momentum if applied directly to a connected space rather than as an add on. Luckily your iPaaS has set you up for this; you can quickly build in or swap out technology to test, iterate or incorporate on the fly.

The biggest takeaway is to remember that everything you build now will be obsolete within 10 years of launch. Many would argue that the best way to plan for this reality would be to plan a remodel every 10 years to patch up the cracks and set yourself for 10 more years of a great connected venue. I disagree with this approach. Why would you want to shut down your core business every 10 years, to make a remodel successful you’ll spend 2 years defining the vision, 2 more planning for the remodel, do the actual remodel, and then spend 2 years finishing things up. At this point you’re spending 70% of your arena lifecycle improving it.

Instead, think of your connected venue like code because in reality, your venue is only as smart and successful as the cloud-based microservices and hardware connecting it. Facebook recently shifted to a continuous deployment model with great success. Rather than have monolithic releases, every minute of the day, Facebook is releasing new code. You can apply this same principle to a connected venue. You should look at every piece of the puzzle constantly to rethink and rebuild it. Your arena is never complete, it’s never fully “connected” because there will always be something more you can rebuild and improve.

“Think of your connected venue like code because in reality, your venue is only as smart and successful as the cloud-based microservices and hardware connecting it." – Gal Oppenheimer

Building for the Future

If you continuously reassess your goals, needs and technology of your connected venue, and act on it to “one-up” yourself, you could embrace the continuous development process and continually renew your arena.

In 30 years, this will be the standard practice when developing connected venues, but we won’t think of them as connected because that will be the baseline in new construction.

Connected cities can look to connected sports venues as both a stepping stone towards building the future.

“In the near future, a connected venue will just be considered a venue. Connected spaces will be a baseline for construction.” – Gal Oppenheimer

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/how-to-architect-the-worlds-most-connected-sports-venueshttps://www.built.io/blog/how-to-architect-the-worlds-most-connected-sports-venuesWed, 19 Jul 2017 00:00:00 GMTEveryone’s busy talking about what the next smartphone will do… when will we have “wireless” charging (that isn’t actually wireless) or an end-to-end buttonless touchscreen with curved glass. Everyone’s hyper-focused on this indispensable phone that they could never imagine a world without, but they’re all missing the point. Ten years ago, the technology world was unraveled when Apple released the iPhone. Many predicted its failure because they couldn’t foresee the convenience of having a computer and an internet connection (even if inferior to a laptop) in their pocket at every moment. Similarly, we’re all so blinded by being tethered to our smartphones that no one is planning for the future.

In the future, data connectivity will be ubiquitous and processing power will be off the charts (literally). You won’t have a super-powerful smartphone or laptop that can do everything because your watch will be powerful, your glasses will be powerful, your fridge will be powerful and who knows, maybe even your kitchen drawers will be fully automated. In a world truly surrounded by smart devices, including roads, automobiles, buildings and restaurants (not just smart registers or smart elevators), we won’t care about buying the latest iPhone the day it comes out because it won’t be our most important technology.

Time and time again, consumers have told us that power and specs aren’t everything. They prefer learning and consuming content from a mobile device that is dwarfed by their desktop because it’s right there. Similarly, as other devices become more intelligent and more connected, their convenience will diminish the utility of your smartwatch. In the same way that it’s easier to ask Alexa when the bus is coming than to pull out your phone, launch an app and wait, it’s easier to open your smart fridge and have it suggest you make broccoli beef because your broccoli is wilting and you bought some meat at the butcher yesterday.

Today, it’s hard to imagine a future where you won’t need your smartphone because most connected IoT devices aren’t really connected. Yes, they have a data connection, but it’s dependent on your Wi-Fi or smartphone. And yes, they collect information, do things “automatically,” and are generally better than their “dumb” unconnected counterpart, but they don’t talk to each other. When you build a connected home today, you’ll probably set it up with Ring, Nest, Hue, Alexa, Sonos or HomePods, a Withings scale. Individually, they all make your life a little better, but when they clash, it can be pretty annoying. This is definitely a first-world problem, but it’s pretty annoying when you’re blasting music on your Sonos, you can’t hear the caller on Ring and it takes you 30 seconds to mute your music.

In the future, your connected home will actually be connected. When your Ring sees someone approaching your door, even before they ring the doorbell, it’ll fade your music so you can hear your phone ring and see who’s there. Your fridge will know what’s in it and when your food is expiring, and your oven will be able to warn you before you burn your dinner. In fact, it’ll be connected to all the other sensors in your home, so it’ll know you’re in your bedroom and give you a verbal reminder only in that room, without disrupting your guests who are throughout the rest of your home. That’s what a connected experience should be.

We’re living in a world with smart sensors and smart devices that are all individually smart, but don’t yet know how to communicate with one another. Yes, you can import your data from Fitbit and Withings and combine it, but it isn’t automated, and it definitely isn’t easy for most people. To create a world with a ubiquity of unique smart devices that actually work cohesively, we need to first empower these devices to communicate with one another more easily. Connected platforms like HomeKit will enable these integrations through single sign-on, just like Apple did with its new TV platform.

As IoT devices and platforms continue to improve, soon everyone will be adopting these smarter devices at home and elsewhere. Each of these IoT devices will individually become more useful than pulling out your smartphone. In the same way many users report their Apple Watch reduces how often they check their phone, each new smart device will reduce the user’s dependency on their phone. In 10 years, this inflection point will begin when users start relying less and less on their smartphones, just as 10 years ago the iPhone brought this on the PC. In 20 years, we’ll think of the smartphone like an iPod today… a legacy piece of hardware that’s forgotten in the back of some drawer.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/in-10-years-iot-will-start-consuming-the-smartphonehttps://www.built.io/blog/in-10-years-iot-will-start-consuming-the-smartphoneTue, 18 Jul 2017 00:00:00 GMTCities are significant contributors to climate change, pollution and other adverse effects on the Earth. As resources continue to decline and challenges emerge, cities are tasked with evolving into green, sustainable environments that can house ever-growing populations while striving to technologically advance on top of aging infrastructure.

How will the cities of today become the green spaces of tomorrow? Quite frankly, those that embrace technology and citizen activism will lead the next wave of the world’s greenest cities.

In this article, I’ll break down the major elements that city leaders should consider when implementing connected, green initiatives.

Choose Green Technology

Lighting

When most people think of green technology, the first thing that comes to mind is lighting. Traditional lighting systems are inefficient and are being replaced with LED technology. LED systems provide many advantages over traditional lighting--from cooler running temperatures to longevity. But the most interesting aspect of LED technology is that it’s built from the ground up with application programming interfaces (APIs) that can be leveraged for intelligent management in mind.

Regardless of whether a city’s lighting is halogen or LED, if it does not have the inherent capability to adapt to changing conditions, it will be inefficient. Within the realm of adaptive lighting, there is a large difference between lights that can turn on and off based on light sensors, and those that are individually addressable and can adapt to factors from foot traffic, sunlight and events taking place in the area.

Traffic Management

Traffic is the intersection of vehicles, public transit, bikes and people on foot. Cities have shifted away from a vehicle-focused traffic design to a more holistic approach that accounts for the many means of transport at a person’s disposal. Managing various modes of transportation is a complex jigsaw of constant compromise between each method. When you place foot traffic above vehicles, road congestion increases. When you place public transit over bikes, bicyclists ride on the sidewalk, creating more congestion and danger for pedestrians.

Using intelligent systems that account for all of these factors and can respond in real time is necessary for cities that continue growing. When you combine vehicle traffic patterns, bike density, pedestrian routes and public transit, you not only gain efficiencies in traffic management, but also “green” benefits like efficient stoplight management and reduced pollution. By analyzing traffic patterns, lighting can be adjusted based on historical data of foot traffic, and when vehicles flow more efficiently, there is less buildup of noxious gases.

Energy

Green and sustainable energy comes in many forms. The obvious is alternative energy sources like wind, solar and geothermal. Sustainability can also be derived from the management and allocation of those resources. Since alternative energy sources have been covered in-depth everywhere, I’ll focus on the management and distribution aspects of clean energy.

Any intelligent management system starts with the basics: making sure everyone has access. After that is achieved, the focus can shift to increasing efficiency and improving the resilience of the energy source. The best, “smart” approach to managing the energy grid is by using a mix of intelligent systems that can analyze trends and reactions to outages with sensors and connected devices. This enables faster reactions to an outage or sudden increase in demand for energy or resources without causing a blackout elsewhere.

Connect those systems so they can talk to each other Green technology is great by itself, but without connecting the various systems involved, the real potential of a green and connected city will remain a pie in the sky idea.

The tech industry has embraced an API-first approach to architecture, and it is time for cities to do the same. By leveraging API-driven technologies, cities can innovate faster and experiment with new uses.

When talking about integration, it is important to distinguish between traditional (like ETL or custom development) and contemporary integration platforms. Developing these connections manually or from scratch no longer makes sense. Don't spend the time building what already exists. Instead, spend that time creating more value from the systems you are connecting.

By leveraging cloud-based services, existing systems and robust integration, a city can build its own platform that is tailored to its exact needs without compromise. The resulting platform is also future-proof and can improve continuously because of the API-first nature of modern integration. This allows cities to be agile and able to constantly experiment with new technology and ideas without incurring the cost of traditional POCs.

Vivek Ranadive, owner of the Sacramento Kings said it best that “every single night, your Tesla updates. So we need to have that same philosophy when it comes to our arena.” And so the same should be for cities: physical architecture should be built with a software architecture, API and microservices approach in order for it to be valuable in years to come.

Leverage data to make smart, real-time decisions

Once you select the best-in-class green technologies and connect them, it is time to take advantage of all the data your systems are now generating. By combining the data from multiple systems and platforms, you can create new opportunities for innovation. Data is not a passive collection channel; your most valuable resource, citizens, can help add data points and context.

Take Louisville, Kentucky for example. It equipped its citizens who have asthma with connected inhalers that take air samples and track when a person takes a puff. This allowed the city to see which areas had the worst air quality and caused the most discomfort for citizens.

Another example of leveraging real-time data to make a greener city is smart commute programs. By using data aggregated from commuters, the city can identify which routes are the most congested and adjust carpooling, public transit and traffic flow in real-time to alleviate congestion and reduce the idle time.

There are any number of ways that a progressive, green and tech-forward city could leverage technology to solve for interesting problems.

Leverage predictive analytics to build for the future

Real-time decision making is a great first step for a system that can consume data, analyze it and predict issues or areas of improvement before the problem even arises. Predictive analytics takes the existing framework of data modeling and analysis and brings it to the future. Artificial intelligence and machine learning have paved the way for systems that can analyze vast troves of historical data and predict potential issues with high accuracy.

With predictive analytics, cities will not be reliant on constant human monitoring to spot problems. Instead, city managers will be able to monitor dashboards and heat maps that provide concise, actionable intelligence that shows where issues are occurring and will occur. Kansas has begun experimenting with a small version of a "dashboard for the city" by monitoring traffic and parking availability along a main thoroughfare. This will allow the city to more efficiently manage parking and traffic signals so that traffic will flow smoothly and citizens can find parking without driving around the block.

Successfully implementing and maintaining this new wave of city initiatives and systems may seem like a daunting task, but small POCs can be scaled up into robust, citywide initiatives. Start somewhere, anywhere and then continue to build out from there.

Green And Digital Transformation Is A Process

When a company embraces digital technology we call the process a ‘digital transformation.’ This is exactly what cities are doing when they prescribe and build a green, connected initiative or POC. The most important thing to understand about the digital transformation process is that it is a journey, so the steps that city leaders take to improve the way things work don’t have to happen all at once. Instead, cities should be built for the future in an iterative and digestible way.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/a-blueprint-for-a-green-and-connected-cityhttps://www.built.io/blog/a-blueprint-for-a-green-and-connected-cityMon, 17 Jul 2017 00:00:00 GMTWe’re thrilled to announce we’ll be at the SEAT (Sports and Entertainment Alliance in Technology) Conference in Atlanta, GA, July 16-18. We’re excited to attend SEAT since the SportsTech conference is in perfect alignment with our recent offering, the Digital Fan Experience Platform.

Announcing The Joint Sports & Entertainment Digital Accelerator

Since launching the Digital Fan Experience Platform we’ve partnered with BeyondCurious, a digital transformation consultancy, to form an industry-first, joint offering for the SportsTech world: the Sports & Entertainment Digital Accelerator. The Digital Accelerator program helps sports teams transform their venue, team and fan experiences through innovative use of digital technology. To learn more about the program, read our announcement.

Join Us For Our Panel, “Mapping Your Digital Journey to the Future”

This Monday, July 17th, Built.io will be participating in a case study panel discussion with catered lunch featuring Andrew Nicholson, Senior Director of Digital at the Sacramento Kings, Matthew Jafarian, VP of Digital Strategy & Innovation at the Miami HEAT and Nikki Barua, CEO of BeyondCurious. CEO Neha Sampat will represent Built.io. Description and info below.

Monday, July 17, 2o17
12:00PM-1:00PM

Today’s modern sports fans expect that their experiences be digital, smart and automated whether watching a game in-person or at home. This panel, comprising SportsTech thought leaders from the Sacramento Kings, Miami HEAT, Built.io and BeyondCurious will explore the ways sports franchises are using cutting edge technologies to create connected, digital experiences for their fans. Learn how professional sports teams integrate physical and digital touchpoints to build loyalty and a better experience for fans.

By attending this panel, attendees will:

Learn how to connect the modern fan to the game via a mobile experience that provides exclusive content and features before, during and after the game.

See firsthand how the Kings and HEAT are using connected apps to achieve greater fan engagement via a seamless, frictionless and intuitive experience.

Gain insights into the dramatic business results the teams have seen as they share key success metrics around monthly active users, sessions and dwell time.

Both the Miami HEAT and the Sacramento Kings--through the help of Built.io and BeyondCurious-- have revolutionized the ways fans can engage with the team and game. This session will empower attendees to map out their own digital journey into the future.

To RSVP, email sports@built.io.

Joint Booth With BeyondCurious

Join us at booth 707 for demos, Q&A’s, and to catch a glimpse of tomorrow’s fan experience.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/seat-conference-the-sports-and-entertainment-digital-accelerator-the-future-of-the-fan-experiencehttps://www.built.io/blog/seat-conference-the-sports-and-entertainment-digital-accelerator-the-future-of-the-fan-experienceFri, 14 Jul 2017 00:00:00 GMTDovetailing the recent launch of the Digital Fan Experience Platform, we’re thrilled to make another announcement! We’ve partnered with BeyondCurious, a digital transformation consultancy, to form an industry-first, joint offering for the SportsTech world: the Sports & Entertainment Digital Accelerator.

About The Sports & Entertainment Digital Accelerator

The Digital Accelerator program helps sports teams transform their venue, team and fan experiences through innovative use of digital technology. It is designed to provide immediate value and impact to participants through actionable insights, design concepts, prototypes and demos.

How Does It Work?

The six-week program leverages BeyondCurious' CatalystGo methodology and Built.io's Digital Fan Experience Platform. The Digital Fan Experience Platform is the technology foundation that helps professional sports teams venture into the digital world and offer better, more engaging fan experiences through connected spaces, customized applications and content delivery to any channel.

Sign Up Now

The Sports & Entertainment Digital Accelerator will accept a limited number of sports teams into its inaugural class to ensure a VIP experience and competitive edge for participants. Teams can apply to join the program online or sign up in person at SEAT.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/announcing-the-sports-entertainment-digital-accelerator-a-joint-offering-with-beyondcurioushttps://www.built.io/blog/announcing-the-sports-entertainment-digital-accelerator-a-joint-offering-with-beyondcuriousThu, 13 Jul 2017 00:00:00 GMTKeep these considerations in mind to make your Node.js app easy to debug, easy to maintain, and easy to scale.

Node.js is catching up quickly with Java, Ruby, Python, and .Net as a preferred language for developing new web applications. The Node.js team is making the JavaScript runtime better, faster, and more rock solid with each passing day. And the user community is growing at a rapid clip.

As adoption continues to rise, more and more developers will climb the Node.js learning curve, confronting similar problems and coding similar functionalities. Thankfully, the Node.js community has come to the rescue with frameworks and design patterns that not only solve common problems, but also help in structuring applications.

Frameworks generally implement MV patterns like MVC (model-view-controller), MVVM (model-view-viewmodel), MVP (model-view-presenter), or just MV. They also tell you where the code for models, views, and controllers should be, where your routes should be, and where you should add your configurations. Many young developers and Node.js enthusiasts do not really understand how design patterns or OOP (Object Oriented Programming) diagrams map to the lines or structure of the code in their application.

That’s where Node.js frameworks like Express.js and Sails.js come in. These and many others are available to help kickstart the development of web applications. Regardless of the framework you use, you will want to keep certain considerations in mind when structuring your app.

Here Are The 7 Key Points To Consider Before Mapping Out A Node.js Application

1. Choosing the right directory structure for the app

While deciding on the directory structure for your app, you should consider the design pattern you chose. This will help with onboarding, finding code, and isolating issues more quickly. I personally prefer using an MVC pattern while architecting a Node.js app. It helps me develop faster, provides flexibility to create multiple views for the same data, and allows asynchronous communication and isolation between MVC components, to name a few.

I like to follow the directory structure shown above, which is based on a combination of Ruby on Rails and Express.js.

2. Mapping ER diagrams to models

As defined in Techopedia, “An entity-relationship diagram (ERD) is a data modeling technique that graphically illustrates an information system’s entities and the relationships between those entities.” An ER diagram outlines the various entities that will participate in our system and defines all interactions between them such that:

Anything that is an abstract or physical “thing” becomes an entity in a model

A model maps to a table inside our database

An attribute or property of an entity translates to an attribute of a model, which is in turn a column inside a table

For example, if your entity is a user, then the corresponding model would be a “User” with attributes such as first_name, last_name, and address inside the database as well as a corresponding table and columns.

Using a simple data architecture makes it pretty straightforward to track your database and file growth any time a new schema is created.

3. Using the MVP pattern

Implementing MVC does not mean just creating folders for controllers, views, and models. You also need to divide your code and logic according to MVC. The code inside your models should be strictly limited to database schema definitions. Developers generally forget that the models will also have code that will perform CRUD operations. Also, any function or operation that is specific to that model should be present inside this file. Most of the business logic related to a model should be in this file.

A common mistake is dumping all of the business logic into controllers. Controllers should only invoke functions from models or other components, transfer data between components, and control the flow of the request, whereas the view folder should only have code to convert objects into human readable form. No logic like formatting data or sorting or filtration should be done inside the view. Keeping the views clean will not only provide a better user experience, but also help you change views without altering any other component.

4. Breaking out logic into modules

As developers, we are always told that we should organize code into files and modules. This does not mean we should try to fit the entire app inside one single file. Dividing your code based on logic and functionality is the best approach. Grouping functions related to a single entity or object into a single file and organizing the directory structure based on logic has many advantages. First, it will save a lot of time determining which function to touch when a bug has to be fixed. Second, it helps to decouple all of the components in the architecture, facilitating the replacement of discrete functionality without the need to modify any other lines of code. Third, it will also aid in writing test cases.

5. Building test cases

It’s very important to never cut corners when building test cases—tests are the guardians of your code base. As your application grows, it becomes harder to remember all of the scenarios you must cover while you are coding. Test cases help you keep your code base stable. Testing prevents regression, saving valuable development time and effort. It helps you ensure new features will be pushed error-free. It also helps improve code quality by catching bugs before they go to production. And most importantly, testing helps to instill confidence that the code will not crash.

6. Creating and leveraging logs

Logs are useful to debugging and understanding the state of your application. They provide valuable insights into the behavior of the app. Here’s a quick list of things to keep in mind when leveraging logs:

Find the right balance when it comes to logging. Having “too much information” is never bad, but over-logging will only make your job harder. Needles are easier to find in smaller haystacks. On the flip side, under-logging will result in too little information available to debug or diagnose.

Split your offline and online logs, wherein the most recent logs are kept for quick retrieval and processing whereas the older logs are archived or dumped to files.

Consider the frequency and duration of your logs as it will impact the amount of storage you’ll need. Most times the amount of storage you need and the number of logs you have are directly proportional.

And remember, don’t log sensitive data such as email IDs, passwords, credit card information, and phone numbers. It’s not only a huge security risk, but often illegal.

7. Planning for growth and scalability

The worst approach to application development is to think about how to scale after you gain traffic. Instead you should build an architecture that has the ability to grow from the beginning to save time and boost productivity.

Spinning up servers is not scaling; distributing load across resources is. This does not mean that you shouldn’t spawn new servers when the load increases. First, you should set up load balancing within your current resources to handle the increased load. When the load balancing can’t efficiently manage the workload, it’s time to begin horizontal scaling and spawn new servers. You can achieve this through an independent stateless process or via modules. Each process or module will work in an isolated, independent manner. This will not only help your application scale efficiently, but also make your system fault tolerant and easy to recover.

How you structure a web application is as important as selecting the right technology. If the foundations are flawed, the application will eventually crash, or refuse to scale, or in some cases fail to start at all. Never rush into developing new features or new ideas without proper planning and architecture. Bad structure or architecture is like a ticking time bomb waiting to explode.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/7-keys-to-structuring-your-nodejs-apphttps://www.built.io/blog/7-keys-to-structuring-your-nodejs-appThu, 29 Jun 2017 00:00:00 GMTCities should look to connected sports venues as an example for their possible future.

Every city leader wants their territory to be more modern and connected. However, to achieve this goal, they’re faced with a daunting task since most of the time you don’t get to start from scratch building on brand new technology. Instead, a technology planner has to build on top of legacy technology and infrastructure that could be hundreds of years old, inhibiting innovation is some crucial ways.

Unlike cities, connected sports venues are already building and launching truly connected spaces. They’re usually built on state-of-the-art technology and there’s a built-in budget for innovation with clear deadlines to meet. Sports venues have clear, positive impacts on their city spaces, so cities can use them as a blueprint for city-wide improvements.

When the Sacramento Kings built Golden 1 Center – the first truly connected colosseum of the 21st century – the stunning connected venue also impacted and revitalized the entire downtown area. Cities around the world looking to modernize can learn from Sacramento to bring fast and connected smart experiences as they build new sports venues.

Below, I’ve outlined the ways that connected venues will pave the way for the development of smart cities all over the world.

Access To The Internet Is A Right, Not A Privilege

Sports venues figured out early on that access to fast and working internet is a must-have to enhance and retain the fan experience. Today’s consumers are mobile-first and omnichannel, and if they can’t connect right away, they get frustrated. This translates directly to what cities will soon provide to both citizens and tourists. Data access in malls and on transportation has even improved morale and can boost local retail.

Sports venues have proven that it’s no longer reasonable for internet access to collapse every time you have a gathering of tens of thousands of people. For example, AT&T can deploy drones to augment its LTE network; imagine a city with an autonomous data network that could augment a city-wide wifi program in parks and downtown with similar drones so you’ll never have trouble finding your friends at a festival or when you want to livestream fireworks on New Year’s Eve.

A Connected Fan Is A Connected Citizen

Sports teams and sports venues figured out that there’s a lot you can do to reach a fan after they’re gone. The key to a successful experience includes every touchpoint before their visit and every touchpoint afterwards. Cities can learn from this too. If someone is coming downtown to go shopping, they will associate everything from the moment they decide to come downtown, until they get home with their experience. If you can anticipate their needs (share the weather or expected traffic) or give them a VIP experience by suggesting a new lunch spot that opened, why wouldn’t you do what you could to help improve their experience.

Smarter Maps And Directions

Have you ever opened up an app like Google Maps or Waze during a marathon or parade and watched it guide you directly down the route because the street has no traffic? Venues in downtown areas cause street closures regularly during larger events. Waze has built systems that allow the venue to report street closures (which may vary day to day) and monitor local traffic in real time. This same system can be used by cities to improve their transportation and mapping whenever they have street closures.

Sports venues figured out that fans don’t want a PDF directory of concessions--they want easy, in-app directions to find a hot dog. Similarly, when someone wants directions to a business (walking or driving), they don’t want directions to the entrance of a mall or the store entrance which is on the opposite side of a parking lot. With the help of leading technology companies, we’ll see this space continue to evolve with support for temporary bus routes, street food, festivals and more.

Smart Parking, Smart Transportation And Smart Traffic

Sports venues and city planning have a symbiotic relationship when it comes to improving transportation, traffic and parking solutions.

Pretty much every city around the world is stuck in a downward spiral of more traffic and less parking. And as more sports venues inch closer to city centers, they force local city and state governments to seek improvements for parking, traffic, public transportation and biking/walkability. Along those lines, when designing a new arena or stadium, it’s no longer acceptable to ignore any adverse effects it’ll have to a city’s residents. Venues work creatively with cities to find new solutions to parking and transit because ultimately it’s necessary to improve their bottom line. These solutions can continue throughout the city and will ultimately lead to better parking and transportation options throughout the region which is an improvement for everyone.

It’s important to remember that these improvements can come in more ways than just infrastructure investments. We’ve already seen how technology has changed our experience in the last 10 years with real-time traffic, transit updates and parking availability. As data tracking and availability improve and it becomes easier to integrate disparate information, better solutions will continue to evolve. Imagine a future where you can reserve a parking spot downtown that will auto-update as you’re driving based on real-time availability and enable garages to fully utilize their parking real estate.

Think Green

Every new major development for a sports venue or a technology company vies for top LEED certification. Companies across the world know it’s important to save the planet where they can. Although one could argue that this decision is as motivated by finance as by morals, nonetheless it will help improve our cities for generations to come. As each new green building replaces an existing building that pollutes our atmosphere, it is a tiny step in the right direction. Each company that invests in a new technology or develops a new technique brings further innovation to this space which can be embraced by our entire planet.

Safety

With all of these improvements and changes coming to a downtown near you, it’s important to always think of safety. Many sports venues have started implementing safety features like cameras and facial recognition software. Cities can make these strides as well.

Cities that install cameras, beacons or other tracking devices should make sure they’re also connecting them to their security solution. Why not patch in all the cameras into a facial recognition system to scan for terrorists or wanted criminals? Additionally, connect them to monitoring and maintenance systems to easily report and fix broken equipment and ensure visitors’ safety.

Redefining A Multi-Use City

20 years ago, a city would play host to at most ten festivals or parades downtown. Similarly, sports venues were only designed for games, concerts and a handful of other events.

Today connected sports venues move closer to downtown areas and are designed for hosting 200 events/year. This improves profits and ROI and will have positive downstream effects on local economies. Cities should take these multi-use spaces into consideration when building for the future.

What’s Next?

We’re already seeing how sports venues are tackling the hard problems we’re facing across our cities and building smarter, more connected spaces. These new community centers offer both direct and indirect improvements in every city and have a downstream impact on the availability of this same technology in a more cost-effective manner that our cities will be able to embrace for future smart-city initiatives.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/connected-sports-venues-futuristic-microcosms-of-smart-citieshttps://www.built.io/blog/connected-sports-venues-futuristic-microcosms-of-smart-citiesWed, 28 Jun 2017 00:00:00 GMTThanks to those of you who attended our last webinar, Digital Transformation: What It Means And How To Get There. We hope you enjoyed learning about the ways in which technology is driving organizational change and how you can tap into it. For those who missed it, you can watch any time here.

Webinar Q&A: ROI, KPIs, Security, And More

We’ve also rounded up a list of our favorite questions from the Q&A that followed the presentation. See below:

Q: How do you measure ROI or set KPIs for digital transformation or integration?

A: As with most things, it depends on the use case. That said, here are some example metrics to take into consideration: time to complete a process (service request), revenue increase (along a new channel), customer satisfaction, fewer escalations, or impact on brand.

Q: Digital transformation use cases seem to rely a lot on the exchange and sharing of data. What are the privacy concerns I should think about?

A: The more you connect systems, the more you have to think about what data might be flowing across them. When building, you should consider the following in relation to information architecture: Who has access? Who needs access? What tools should I use? Is there PII or other regulated data?

Q: How can I incentivize people when privacy is of concern today? How does that translate to the concept of digital transformation?

A: Try to leverage the ‘Opt-in Economy’. In using a retail example, the question you should focus on is, ‘how can I incentivize someone to share their preferences?’ Say you want to deliver location-based realtime deals directly to mobile. Someone might give you their info IF AND ONLY IF they think it delivers value.

Q: I’m not at a high level within my org. How can I help us change?

A: Often times digital transformation begins in the trenches because that’s where IT is most backlogged. Someone uses a simple tool to solve a business problem that’s been plaguing them. Maybe an employee in the HR department improves the onboarding process in some regard. It doesn’t have to be a big initiative, but it can turn into one once you can demonstrate results. The most important thing to keep in mind is to keep track and measure your results to prove worth.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/webinar-recap-digital-transformationhttps://www.built.io/blog/webinar-recap-digital-transformationMon, 26 Jun 2017 00:00:00 GMTIn Built.io Contenstack, you can reference other content types within a content type. A common example of a ‘reference’ is listing an author or a category within a blog post. You might also include reference info for similar blog posts, images, or videos.

There is a convention to be followed working with references: If you want to publish an entry that has references to other entries or assets, you should ideally publish all the referenced entries and assets first, and then publish the original entry.

Following this sequence ensures that the published entry has all the required content and is complete. But it’s easy to miss this. Many content editors forget to publish referred entities—especially if there are many references—before publishing the original entry. And the result is an entry with inadequate data and lots of rework.

Our latest update is an attempt to avoid this from happening. We have introduced a new alert window that works as a reminder as well as a tool to publish the unpublished (or draft) referenced entries or assets in a single click.

Let’s see how it works.

If you try to publish an entry that has references to other entries and/or assets, you will see a dialog box ‘Published References’. This dialog box contains the list of all the unpublished entries and/or assets that are referred in the entry.

You can then choose the referred entries and/or assets should be published along with this entry. Or you can choose to publish the entry without publishing any referred entities (though it is not recommended).

When you select the required entries/assets and click the ‘Publish With References’ button, the entry will be published to the selected environment along with all the referenced entries and/or assets. It’s this simple. You don’t have to go back to the actual page of the referenced entries or assets in order to publish them.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/working-with-references-in-built-io-contentstack-just-got-easierhttps://www.built.io/blog/working-with-references-in-built-io-contentstack-just-got-easierSun, 25 Jun 2017 00:00:00 GMTIf you’re a sales engineer, you’re busy balancing a number of tasks like helping your Account Executives (AEs) build a proof of value, supporting your Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) in their qualification processes, and occasionally acting as an in-house IT guy or gal to your co-workers since you’re semi-technical.

In this post I’ll cover how you can optimize your job by leveraging integration and automation with Built.io Flow.

Supercharge Your Demos

Leverage integration to make wowing prospects easier.

Customize demos - Instead of talking through a slide deck or a canned demo, tailor your pitch and demo to your prospect’s exact scenario on the fly using our drag and drop interface. Swap out services or show connections in real-time.

Prove value - Seeing is believing, so show your prospects your product in action in their specific use case without spending the development time to create a POC. More often than not, this requires integration. This way you can quickly move past the “will it work with ___?” question.

Connect Your Business Stack

Streamline and optimize your stack by integrating all of your tools together.

Better customer service - Never let a lead slip through the cracks. Automate long tail customer engagements and leverage your data sources to tailor sequences to your leads specific needs and interests.

Analytics - Unify all of your meaningful data into actionable information. Once you connect all of your services, you gain insight into your funnel and granular information about how your leads interact with your website, product, and sales team.

Reporting - Automatically generate your reports so you don’t have to spend hours digging through notes and systems to produce your daily, weekly or monthly reports.

Agility - Deploy your services at the speed of business. Instead of spending months relying on a services integration team, build robust integrations between your systems that are tailored to your needs. You can adapt and react to changes in the marketplace or business processes in hours and days instead of months.

Connect Your Company’s Systems

Help connect all the departments within your organization.

Unifying teams - Help keep sales, marketing, dev, customer success, and finance teams in sync by connecting systems to pass data from various services through integration.

Keep your favorite tools - Devs like Trello but Marketing likes Asana but you still need to file a ticket? Leveraging Built.io Flow and a system like Cisco Spark or Slack makes it ok for each team to use their own tools while still unifying data.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/how-to-leverage-integration-and-automation-as-a-sales-engineerhttps://www.built.io/blog/how-to-leverage-integration-and-automation-as-a-sales-engineerWed, 21 Jun 2017 00:00:00 GMTIn my last post, I shared how to leverage automation and integration as an SE. This time I want to share the top templates for sales people we see in Built.io Flow.

To format data to the required format for a service (i.e. all lowercase, remove spaces, etc.)

To search through a string of text to find a specific word or to replace a word.

In this blog post, we’ll show you how to use this new action to get your text formatted correctly using splitting, trimming, matching, replacing, capitalizing and more.

Here’s How It Works

1. Splitting texts

Splitting lets you separate a string of text based on a character like a comma or space. In the example below, the string is split using a comma.

Here’s how it works:

2. Trimming extra spaces in texts

If your string of text has extra spaces in it, you can use the trim operation to remove extra spaces.

Here’s how it works:

3. Searching and matching texts

This operation searches a string for match that you define. Using match, you can easily search through a string to match a word or phrase.

Here’s how it works:

4. Replacing texts

‘Replace’ means exactly what it sounds like: find and replace words like you may have seen in text editors like Word or Google Docs. This is useful if you have to redact a document or change one word to another but you want to automate the process. Some use cases might include changing team names, dates, etc. Much more efficient.

Here’s how it works:

5. Capitalizing texts

Sometimes the output from a service isn’t capitalized correctly. You can use the capitalize operation to capitalize the first letter of a sentence.

Here’s how it works:

6. Lowercasing texts

If you need to input information in all lowercase, you can use the lowercase operation to convert any string of text to all lowercase.

Here’s how it works:

7. Uppercasing texts

This does the opposite of the lowercase operation. It will convert any string of text into all uppercase.

Here’s how it works:

8. Converting texts to Base64 format

You may run across a service that needs to have a string encoded in Base64. Use the Convert to Base64 operation to quickly convert your text into the correct format.

Here’s how it works:

9. Converting special symbols to HTML entities

Not every character is interchangeable between “normal” text and UTF-8. This means you might have characters like the ampersand (&) look like a random collection of symbols. Use the Escape HTML entities to convert special symbols to their correct HTML entities.

Here’s how it works:

10. Converting HTML entities to special symbols

This operation converts the HTML entities to their respective characters.

Here’s how it works:

Now that you know how the ‘Text Operations’ action works, it’s time to try it out in your Built.io Flow Express workflows. For more information on ‘Text Operations’, click here.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/10-ways-business-people-can-automate-and-update-data-with-text-operationshttps://www.built.io/blog/10-ways-business-people-can-automate-and-update-data-with-text-operationsFri, 16 Jun 2017 00:00:00 GMTBy definition, realtime data is information that is delivered immediately. Older legacy systems that claim to support realtime in fact do not. But even modern cloud-based systems, despite their support for easy connectivity via APIs and mobile scenarios, were not designed for the contemporary take on realtime.

A common root cause for a system to fail delivering true realtime is because of its limited or inadequate, underlying architecture. Contemporary integration uses webhooks to receive notifications when an event occurs. While this is generally accepted as ‘close enough’, you’re actually just retrofitting an existing, inadequate architecture and in the process of patching up one issue, creating other problems.

What is encouraging is that some components of newer systems are being designed to meet the needs of IoT (Internet of Things) – including intense data workflows, support for smaller software footprint on devices with limited compute power – and there are glimmers of true realtime scenarios among them. However, you also need integration technologies to support realtime properly to build real solutions that are useful in the real world.

IoT is a good place to examine realtime deployments, even if you don’t have an IoT project on your ‘To Do’ list because a successful IoT experience relies on enabling data to flow in realtime. When true realtime data can flow back and forth, actual business goals can be met, such as providing better customer service, improving the effectiveness of loyalty programs or increasing time to market with a new offering.

In this article I’ll reveal a pattern for delivering realtime data using a surprising ingredient – cloud integration.

A Recipe For Success: An Integration Pattern That Supports Realtime

The most common realtime integration recipe almost always includes the following components: data stream processing, rule matching and integrating with other systems to provide some kind of notification to an end user, woven together with an integration Platform-as-a-Service (iPaaS) and, at times, a Mobile Backend-as-a-Service (MBaaS).

The benefit of this pattern is that it allows you to plug and play into different systems and use cases. The ingredients to the solution remain the same no matter the context; be it mobile, web, or IoT, consumer or industrial, prototype or large-scale deployment.

Although business goals differ depending on the organization, a properly designed ‘connected architecture’ (and the workflows that support it) enables the use of a consistent pattern that can be recycled to solve very different business challenges.

To illustrate this point further, here are some variable use cases where realtime data delivery is expressed as different flavors to a reusable pattern.

Use case #1: Loyalty programs and sales in connected spaces

Sales and loyalty programs are only useful if they play out in a timely manner. It’s rare that a customer will remember to bring a coupon they see in a newspaper to a store, but if he or she receives a notification for a coupon on their smartphone as they walk toward a store, they might actually walk inside and use it. Why? Because it’s timely, convenient and highly contextual.

Under the surface, the technology that helps guide customer behavior is, of course, realtime data. In the context of a connected space that incorporates a loyalty program, the integration workflow might look like the following:

Data is collected in the MBaaS from an IoT device like a beacon, sensor or mobile app. This essentially functions as a database, where it can be easily accessed by a number of other services through proper integration. This means if a space is “connected” it can access the loyalty system, the location-based couponing service and the self-checkout system all from one location using integrated data.

You can copy and paste this integration pattern into a variety of scenarios, like connected hospitality, connected retail or a connected event space.

Use case #2: Preemptive customer service (for physical products as part of the Industrial Internet of Things)

Great customer service relies on predicting customer needs. In this world, nothing beats preventing or solving an issue before a customer even experiences it. Once again, the technical recipe to help support this means access to realtime data streams from multiple services and locations. Here’s an example of an IIoT elevator use case to help explain this pattern:

IIoT brings real value to large scale technology deployments – such as a bank of elevators in a commercial building – by reducing the cost of maintenance, optimizing spare part stocking and increasing overall service efficiency. An elevator with intelligent monitoring systems can alert a company (or a person) of potential issues before something actually breaks down. From there, the “smart” elevator can show the service technician the exact part that needs to be replaced and automatically deliver the service manual to the person’s mobile device--all before someone ever gets stuck in a broken elevator.

In the context of a physical product / industrial IoT scenario, an integration workflow might look like this:

Sensors attached to an IIoT device can funnel data into your database or MBaaS, and then channel it into an AI system that can compare the status of the device to historical data and predict if there will be an issue. If a problem arises, based on business logic or rules, the ticket can be routed to the right service agent so they can proactively work to solve the problem before the customer is negatively affected.

Again, this integration pattern could be used in a variety of IIoT contexts, ranging from vending machines, to jet engines, to supply chain management, to connected transportation.

Continuous improvement is one of the best ways to get ahead in IoT development. And a key component to help set a company up for success is realtime data integration. In the context of connected transportation, an integration workflow might look like this:

Modern vehicles provide a constant stream of realtime data, which can be used to streamline the post-production maintenance and diagnostics of a connected vehicle, such as a Tesla.

For example, if a vehicle’s brakes are overheating from normal usage, a notification could be sent automatically to the car’s owner to take it to the nearest service center via directions through an integration with Google Places and Waze. The car would then notify the service center that it’s on its way with the estimated arrival time. From there, the parts center would be alerted to send a delivery to arrive at the same time as the car itself.

The value of integration and realtime data in a post-production supply chain is that it reduces the lifetime cost of supporting human lag time. Instead of a vehicle sitting in a service center for days while the car’s problem is being diagnosed and parts are delivered and installed, with realtime data integration, the vehicle can be back on the road later that same day, instead of a week later.

By providing car technicians with pertinent information in realtime, they’re able to do their jobs better and more quickly, ultimately positively impacting the customer’s experience. Implementation of realtime technology not only improves customer satisfaction, but also reduces cost and trouble for the dealership, manufacturer and owner.

The Future Of Realtime

Connecting systems to manage realtime data flow used to be incredibly finicky and required specialized knowledge and tools. More recently, industry standards and protocols have allowed such integrations to become more standardized.

Similarly, a new generation of cloud integration platforms are making it faster, easier and cheaper to orchestrate the necessary connections: A growing number of innovative iPaaS (integration platform-as-a-service offerings) provide the flexible glue to connect any service with quasi-realtime support today and replace it with a true realtime system as it becomes available. This convenient plug-and-play framework allows for a continuous upgrade cycle, where realtime capabilities can be added or upgraded on-demand, without breaking the overall architecture or solution.

With an iPaaS, you can integrate terabytes of data from disparate cloud systems, build triggers that kick off data workflows and maintain connections to true realtime systems and devices, including sensors and beacons. As the costs associated with IoT continue to decrease, I expect realtime data flows to increase exponentially everywhere around us. In addition, iPaaS also makes it possible for a new generation of non-technical users to create realtime data flows.

Imagine empowering the facilities team in an office building to create automated workflows themselves. Or allowing security to connect realtime building access data with live video feeds and a facial recognition service. Such solutions would have taken months to build not that long ago and would not have been realtime. We’re at a point in time where even a semi-technical user can create solutions for themselves in a fraction of the time and without specialized knowledge.

The future is exciting, thanks to integration coupled with new technology. Soon most scenarios we imagined as futuristic will feel normal.

In another example, consider the City of San Francisco: five years ago bus schedules were proudly displayed over many bus stops, but they showed when the bus should be there versus when it would be there. Once an API was released, apps like NextBus were able to process realtime data to show exactly where the buses were and how long it would take for it to actually arrive. Today, this feels expected.

Now, think of a world where a city’s transportation system, its traffic monitoring system, its traffic control system, weather information and private solutions such as Lyft and Google Maps can all share and compute data instantly. The system can analyze and reroute traffic based on current and future conditions, which represents a major leap forward compared to what was possible by relying on machine learning based solely on historic traffic patterns and near-realtime data.

The future is bright. It’s connected. And it’s realtime.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/how-integration-delivers-and-directs-realtime-data-in-iot-workflowshttps://www.built.io/blog/how-integration-delivers-and-directs-realtime-data-in-iot-workflowsFri, 09 Jun 2017 00:00:00 GMTManaging assets in CMS can be tedious and time-consuming, especially if you’ve saved a lot of them.

We know it’s painful, so we’ve introduced the ability to create folders in assets. This means you can group your assets based on type, project, color, size, or any other parameter of your choice.

Folders in the Assets section of Built.io Contentstack work just like any other folder system: You can create new folders, rename them, save assets (files) and more folders within them, or move them easily.

Below is a quick overview of how this feature works.

Create A New Folder

Creating new folders in Assets is easy. Navigate to the ‘Assets’ section, and click the new folder icon on the top right-hand side corner of the page. Provide a name of your choice and click ‘Create’. You will now see the new folder in the list of assets.

Move An Asset To A Folder

Next, you may want to move some existing assets to the newly created folder. To do this, hover over the asset that you want to move, and click the vertical ellipsis icon, i.e., the ‘more options’ icon (indicated by three vertical dots) located on the extreme right-hand side end of the asset. Pick the ‘Move to’ option and select the folder in which you want to move this asset.

Likewise, you can also move folders to another folder.

Rename Or Delete A Folder

Renaming a folder is simple. Hover over the folder and click the ‘more options’ icon. Pick the ‘Rename’ option and provide a new title.

If you want to get rid of the folder, select the ‘Delete’ option. However, please keep in mind that deleting a folder will delete all the assets that are saved within it.

Quite evidently, managing assets with the help of folders becomes a lot easier and quicker. Now that you know how this feature works, log in to your Built.io Contentstack account and try it out.

Let Us Know What You Think

We added this functionality because our users asked for it. What other features are you interested in? Share your thoughts with us at support-contentstack@built.io.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/introducing-folders-manage-assets-like-a-pro-in-built-io-contentstackhttps://www.built.io/blog/introducing-folders-manage-assets-like-a-pro-in-built-io-contentstackFri, 09 Jun 2017 00:00:00 GMTThe world can’t get enough of gesture control. Our talk was so popular at SXSW that we decided to make it a webinar to share our knowledge - so thanks to those who joined us for “How To Incorporate Gesture Control, AI, and NLP into your own J.A.R.V.I.S.”!

You can watch the recording anytime here. We’ve also curated our favorite questions from the Q&A below.

Webinar Q&A: Security, Buy-in And More

Q: Is there a risk to exposing all of your data to an AI system?

A: There is always a risk when you are opening up your data to a third party tool. Luckily most of these systems are secure, and by identifying the datasets that are needed ahead of time you can reduce to amount of exposure to potential security risks. By simply employing best practices like SSL, HTTPS, and keeping your system software up to date, most scenarios are safe.

The bigger risk we’re seeing is around new startups and manufactures that do not have the proper experience building solutions that are secure. For example, many IoT devices use system passwords like “sysadmin” and “admin,” but don’t offer the ability to change them. This has been the root of most IoT hacks and will continue to be so until there are security best practices put into place.

Q: Gesture control is really cool, but it feelS A LITTLE FUTURISTIC AND TOO EXPENSIVE. WHAT'S THE REAL WORLD BUSINESS CASE?

A: Gesture control solutions are built on the same core technologies you've been using for years - this is just the next level and the natural progression of things. Don’t get left behind. To build a business case, you can build a POC with a virtualizer and then use a working demo to secure buy-in.

Q: What other use cases do you see for gesture control?

A: Gesture control is just another way to interact with your digital systems. You can think of them as supercharged hotkeys.

Q: Voice control doesn’t seem to be all that useful when you look at systems like Alexa. Do you really see it being widely adopted?

A: Yes. Even though voice controlled AI like Alexa and Siri are limited today, Amazon and Apple have educated the general public on the value of digital assistants. As NLP improves, more and more systems will integrate voice control and commands into day to day operations. In the very near future, all of your customer service requests will be handled by AI using NLP.

Q: Which is better with Built.io: Alexa or Google Home?

A: It depends on the end goal of your application. If a simple input structure works (i.e. what’s the largest deal in the pipeline), then Alexa will meet your needs without the additional work required to implement API.ai. If your application requires more flexible input (i.e. a less rigid input structure with multiple variables), API.ai is your best option.

Q: Why are APIs so important to the adoption of AI?

A: AI functions on the easy availability of data in massive quantities. APIs are the easiest way for computers to receive and provide this data.

Q: How do we improve AI?

A: Most would say we should improve algorithms, but I see the real issue being datasets. We have to feed AI a variety of data that ensures we don’t induce bias and that the data is diverse enough to include outlier cases.

Q: How do we know that AI is making correct decisions?

A: Testing and improving AI is critical. Use sample datasets to interpret, perfect, and analyze your AI. It's important to remember that an AI is not impartial – it works based on the dataset you provide, so any biases inherent in your data come with it.

Q: Say what? My AI is biased? How?

A: The datasets that are provided to your AI can be biased. If you take historical loan data, you will find that there was discrimination based on race or gender. Now if you take this dataset and feed it into your AI, it will reach the same conclusion as the historical data. This can be prevented by monitoring the algorithms and the outputs. It’s imperative to monitor your tools to ensure that it is not becoming biased. (Based on a real story).

Q: How do you see your platform playing a role in the future of AI?

A: We see Built.io Flow as the glue or connector for AI. You can use our platform to funnel and filter data from all of your data sources like social media, financials, databases, etc. to your AI tool. From there, we can help deliver the information from the AI tool to your computer, phone, or digital assistant.

Q: How do chatbots work on Built.io?

A: We have done a lot with chatbots recently, especially with messaging services like Cisco Spark, text messages, and voice based endpoints like the Echo or Google Home. Our platform makes it simple to connect complex systems like Salesforce, Marketo, or API.ai to your chatbot regardless of what services or endpoints you choose.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/webinar-recap-how-to-integrate-gesture-control-ai-and-nlp-to-build-your-own-jarvishttps://www.built.io/blog/webinar-recap-how-to-integrate-gesture-control-ai-and-nlp-to-build-your-own-jarvisThu, 08 Jun 2017 00:00:00 GMTToday the market is full of a variety of CMS options, and choosing one can be a daunting task. While a headless CMS can be used to cater to any kind of content requirement (especially cross-platform publishing), there are certain cases where using an API-first solution may be overkill. We’ve compiled this guide for to help you determine when to choose a headless CMS and when to stick with a traditional one.

When To Consider A Traditional, Coupled CMS

Headless CMS is great for almost all scenarios, save for a just a handful:

You have low or no changes to content: If you own a static website with very infrequent or no content changes, using a coupled CMS like Wordpress could be a better solution for your needs.

Your presentation is a second thought: On a site where visual presentation is not a significant focus, you could get away with using a legacy CMS.

You can’t code yourself: Since headless CMS is API-first, there aren’t many templates to leverage if you aren’t technical or are a content creator. In a case like this, using a coupled CMS is an easier way to get a head start.

You don’t have developers: If you’re a marketing focused organization and have no developers in house or the budget for an external development agency, it’s better to have a drag and drop user interface where you can build your presentation layer without knowing how to code.

You’re a small business: If you’re a small operation, then a free or low cost self-service platform is best (think Wix or Squarespace) because like the above scenarios, you probably don’t have the resources to completely customize your site. But it’s important to remember that eventually you’ll hit a plateau on these platforms – especially once your business grows to the point where you need flexibility to have centralized content for more than just your web presence. Remember, headless is best for SMBs and enterprise organizations looking to empower their marketing team to generate content cross-platform in a central location. Plus, developers love the freedom and flexibility they get when they can code in their preferred language.

When To Consider A Headless Or Decoupled CMS

There are several cases where having a headless CMS on your side can prove to be an advantage for your business. Here are just a few:

You need to produce dynamic content: If your digital property requires frequent content updates, going with a headless CMS is the best choice. It lets you create, update, and manage content often and easily, without affecting the presentation code.

You need a centralized location for content. In a headless CMS, you can easily update just a string of text and launch the change across a jumbotron, website, smartwatch and VR headset all at once without worrying about the presentation layer. This is critical especially for things like flash sales or other content that needs to get out quickly.

You’re not just focused on the web. If you need to reach your audience across multiple channels like mobile, smart watches or a marketing kiosk, an older solution isn’t going to cut it. Unlike traditional CMS’s that come with only web page layouts by default, a headless CMS has no presentation layer attached to it. It delivers content via APIs, which means you can send your content to any medium or channel. This is highly beneficial since people consume content across different channels and especially helpful for well-established organizations that have budget for ads.

You prioritize high-speed content delivery. Thanks to content delivery networks (CDNs), many headless CMS providers enable delivering content to any corner of the world in a fraction of a second. This isn’t possible with legacy content management systems that don’t expose their APIs. As a result, headless CMS is best suited for businesses that rely on high-speed content delivery.

You need to scale quickly. As with any SaaS service, a headless CMS is lightweight since you don’t have to maintain a backend or bare the cost of any of the infrastructure. Instead you can focus on publishing as much content as you need, quickly and easily.

You have dedicated developers. Since headless CMS is API-first, you’ll need developers to create the presentation layer and set up the content. If your organization has a dedicated team to help develop your presentation layers, you’re ready for headless.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/when-to-choose-a-headless-cms-and-when-not-tohttps://www.built.io/blog/when-to-choose-a-headless-cms-and-when-not-toThu, 01 Jun 2017 00:00:00 GMTYesterday, we formally announced our first solution at the intersection of “physical” and “digital” worlds: the Digital Fan Experience Platform. This solution comprises Built.io’s three award-winning products and an ecosystem of partner offerings, specifically designed for the sports and entertainment vertical.

With sports teams embracing the opportunity to connect and engage with fans and delight ticket holders with exciting, bespoke experiences, the Digital Fan Experience Platform offers teams and sports franchises the ability to create innovative digital experiences that keeps fans coming back for more.

What Is The Digital Fan Experience?

The Digital Fan Experience Platform offers highly customizable building blocks that allow sports brands to blend physical and digital aspects of both games and venue to deliver impactful, tailored sports experiences. This new offering from Built.io provides a complete software platform that embraces and extends the physical infrastructure of any arena or stadium, turning it into a smart, connected space bursting with personalized, realtime, futuristic interactions that help make every fan feel like a VIP.

The platform itself features industrial-grade, cutting edge technology to create and scale applications across mobile, web and IoT. It incorporates digital innovation such as bots and A.I., AR and VR, as well as sensors, beacons and drones to allow sports brands to continuously evolve their desired fan experiences. It also makes it easy to aggregate and deliver compelling content to the right device at the right time: laptops, mobile phones, smartwatches, VR headsets, in-arena jumbotrons and more.

How Does It Work?

Connect Everything: The solution helps teams digitize and connect venues for an unforgettable ‘stadium-as-a-service’ that essentially functions as a ‘Giant Tesla’. Technologists can put together their dream stack by connecting any combination of microservices, sensors and beacons to support a VIP fan experience, help drive deep analytical insights, and enable teams to test out, incorporate, and continuously iterate components without disrupting the fan experience.

Build Apps: Built.io’s mBaaS is lightweight and features an industry-first pluggable architecture that supports any microservice of your choice to help craft a beautiful, compelling, robust app.

Earning Fan Engagement Through Unique Value

A key underlying principle for the Digital Fan Experience Platform is that the experience should deliver enough unique value to earn an opt-in from every fan. In order for me to share my profile and preferences with my favorite sports team, I would want to know that they are using that information to deliver something of value, tailored to my personality and behavior. With this ownness lying with the sports team, there is pressure to be more interesting and innovative. That’s where the platform delivers unique value.

Our Partner Network

Built.io has extensive partnerships with leading sports technology providers, including Cartogram, Experience, Gimbal, Handbid, SessionM, Urban Airship, Vitec, and Parking Panda, a SpotHero company, as well as award-winning agencies, such as BeyondCurious and M&C Saatchi LA, that specialize in concepting and building custom fan experiences, apps and digital solutions for winning sports brands.

Our partners spawn innovation, support big ideas, and help curate the best experience for everyone involved.

We look forward to helping you build your VIP fan experience. Contact us with your idea; we’d be happy to build a POC with our team of experts in the Innovation Lab and help you compete (and win!) with your future fan experience.

Join The Sports & Entertainment Accelerator

If you're ready for next steps, sign up for our joint accelerator with BeyondCurious. We combine the Digital Fan Experience Platform and BeyondCurious' proven CatalystGo methodology in a first-of-its-kind six week program that will help you create a better fan experience. Learn more here.

Hurry, space is limited! We only accept 5 teams. Sign up for the accelerator here.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/introducing-the-digital-fan-experience-platform-a-slam-dunk-for-sportstechhttps://www.built.io/blog/introducing-the-digital-fan-experience-platform-a-slam-dunk-for-sportstechWed, 24 May 2017 00:00:00 GMTThis article first appeared on RT Insights.

The mobile app development world is simultaneously stabilizing and continuously evolving, highlighting some major changes of late. There are two best practices to consider when working on your mobile backend infrastructure strategy to set yourself up for success in the coming decade. First, plan for the unknown by building a flexible API-focused architect based on a pluggable, microservices approach. Next, work toward continuous development and deployment. Though mobile web development isn’t quite up to the continuous model yet, in just a few years it will be.

Migrate To APIs And Microservices

Over the last few years, we’ve seen a growing number of applications breaking out of the traditional app bond. On iOS for example, applications can share “sheets” that are accessible in other apps for editing and sharing content. Furthermore, you can put widgets with key information directly on the lock screen so users don’t even need to unlock their applications. We no longer believe that one single point to access information or make changes is the right way to go. Instead, put the 2-3 most crucial features at users’ fingertips.

Behind the scenes, most technology companies have completed the transition to RESTful APIs and are embracing microservices, the next step toward breaking apart the mobile application and embracing interoperability with different systems. This process has allowed companies to build both rich, segmented experiences, and to layer in additional information and data points from other services.

It’s now common to use 5-10 outside services (AKA microservices) when building anything instead of wasting time reinventing the wheel or building something from scratch. This lets you focus on building what’s next instead of making improvements to a minor part of your service, just benefit from someone else’s work.

By relying on a stack of microservices you trust, you can focus on building for the future. A core tenet of being a good engineer is to be ‘lazy’ – in other words, don’t do things from scratch – so that you can build better and faster. – Gal Oppenheimer

For example, Yelp improves its customer experience by layering relevant details such as weather, directions, reserving Uber rides and local holidays on top of restaurant details so that a user never needs to leave Yelp – from the moment they start researching until they’re dining.

Applications will soon be taking the next step, leaping off the mobile screen completely. We’re already seeing some adaption on Apple TV, Carplay, bots, VR headsets and more. A microservices approach to development will give you the power to build exactly what you need on any platform since an API is agnostic to the final output. So while you may not know what you want to build next, you can be ready for it no matter what.

Our industry rewards major rewrites and starting from scratch. Every two years you hear about how LinkedIn is launching a new application or website built from the ground up and embracing new technology. That approach isn’t practical for most companies and is extremely expensive. To top it off, every time you launch something from scratch, due to impending timelines, features are temporarily removed. Instead, we recommend staying away from these news-juicy decisions and making a more pragmatic decision.

Continuously Rewrite Your Platform

If you haven’t begun (or completed) a transformation to REST APIs and microservices, get started right away. This is the first and most important step to keep your platform ahead of the game. Even when you’ve completed this process, your work isn’t done. Across the software industry, one major factor in staying competitive is continuously reassessing and rewriting your underlying platform periodically. This process allows you to continuously upgrade an existing system without needing to pause and start from scratch, avoid hitting upper bounds and, most importantly, fix critical bugs that may remain in older pieces of software.

How Major Companies Have Rewritten Their Platforms

Nearly 10 years ago, Apple upended the industry (and Google followed suit shortly after) by introducing a brand new mobile OS. Although this was based on technology that was nearly 10 years old (Mac OS X), Apple had consistently updated and rewritten portions of their desktop OS so that they could put it on a hand-held device with a reasonable battery life as opposed to the industry standard for “smart” mobile OSes at the time.

Over the years, both Apple and Google have consistently rewritten entire aspects of their OS including UI, UX and actual core elements of the OS. Industry leaders have followed the same practice to stay ahead of their competition, rather than just iterate slowly over time. For example Uber has completely transformed their user experience with their latest mobile update in November. This has allowed each of these companies to continuously transform and revitalize the platform as technology, and, more importantly, user activity patterns have changed.

It’s impossible to continuously upgrade an existing system without hitting upper bounds after a few years, and so rewriting a platform – or a least aspects of it – are crucial to its continued success. – Gal Oppenheimer

Our Transformation At Built.io

We’ve employed this practice ourselves. Built.io Backend, our Backend-as-a-Service which launched in April 2013, is currently on version 3.1. It has gone through two major rewrites since we began developing it over 5 years ago. The platform was originally developed on MongoDB and RoR. In our first major rewrite, we replaced RoR after pushing this architecture to the limit. We essentially rewrote the underlying architecture in Node.js, incorporating the lessons learned with the previous platform iteration and rebuilding using the latest technology. This brought calls that were taking 200 ms down to under 20 ms. Two years later, we upgraded our architecture to enable a pluggable environment with direct access and customization of the DB, taking advantage of major updates in MongoDB 3.

Technology is constantly improving. If your primary goal is preserve the status quo and limit change in your technology stack, you’re holding back your customers and missing out on the opportunity to innovate. – Gal Oppenheimer

Built.io Flow was launched one and a half years ago and has already undergone two major UI rewrites: first to move from AngularJS to ReactJS, which boosted load times about 10X (twenty-plus seconds to sub-2-second load times), and then again to improve the user experience based on usability insights gathered during the first year of Built.io Flow being generally available. We’re continuing to iterate on this experience and have more major improvements coming soon. It’s important to remember in this case that in addition to building and improving on the features of the platform, we’re also focusing on making them faster and easier to use.

We so deeply believe in this regular rewrite process that it has always been one of the core tenets of our engineering process; it keeps our platforms both nimble and powerful.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/best-practices-for-mobile-application-infrastructure-apis-microservices-and-continuously-rewriting-your-platformhttps://www.built.io/blog/best-practices-for-mobile-application-infrastructure-apis-microservices-and-continuously-rewriting-your-platformWed, 24 May 2017 00:00:00 GMTGreat news for teams! Now you can add notes in your workflows. Leave one on the canvas, on actions, over conditions - anywhere! Save details for later or leave a note for a team member when you share a workflow.

You can also hide or make them visible again using the ‘Notes’ icon given at the bottom right side of the canvas.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/add-notes-to-your-builtio-flow-enterprise-workflowshttps://www.built.io/blog/add-notes-to-your-builtio-flow-enterprise-workflowsWed, 24 May 2017 00:00:00 GMTAutomating DevOps processes plays a crucial role in speeding up tasks, reducing manual errors, and increasing productivity within a business. The DevOps team is responsible for gathering various system and application performance metrics from the production environment. System-level performance metrics are typically collected by the monitoring tools, whereas application performance metrics can be easily derived from application logs.

Tools of the trade

Loggly is a hugely popular tool amongst those of us in DevOps. A log management solution, Loggly helps the team view metrics and dig into details by searching the logs from multiple systems from a single location.

A real use case: Loggly + Built.io

When combined with Loggly, Built.io Flow provides my team with the ability to integrate this search with Loggly, process the search results, and automate them as needed.

This article will demonstrate how to automate the collection of various application statistics through Loggly using Built.io Flow. The stats I collect include the total number of events that have occurred in an application over a specific duration; let’s use the last 24 hours as an example.

By automating this report, I save considerable time and can quickly provide my company with a snapshot of what’s going on with our users. In short, this automation helps everyone stay on the same page.

Assumptions

Logic

Here is the initial logic for this workflow. Note that it can be modified as needed.

Building the workflow

In this workflow, you will implement a semi-complex system that includes some iteration. Suppose you have a SaaS application in which users can create and update their own applications or import applications from other users.

The following are processes that will be implemented:

Retrieve the total number of events over the last 24 hours tracking when a user has imported the application successfully, and list the top 10 application IDs that were imported. These are events that are logged to Loggly.

Retrieve the total number of events over the last 24 hours tracking when applications were updated by a user, and list the 10 user IDs carrying out the highest number of application updates.

Here are the steps to build the workflow:

Step 1: Start with a blank canvas in Built.io Flow Enterprise. Add the Node.js Code action from the Utility > Developer Tools section in the panel on the right, and connect it to the Play button.

Step 2: This action contains the desired search patterns that will help retrieve the application stats we will use. The code below is what is inside the action:

The base_query variable contains the name of the log file (tag) and the name of the field (my_log_message) that will be queried. If there are multiple log files to be queried, then you can specify them in the search_patterns variable.

The search_patterns variable offers different search patterns and it may contain the same or different log files (tag) as appropriate.

The top_app_fields variable contains the fields that are in each log message. This variable will group and sort the messages based on the frequency with which the field appears. As a result, you will be able to select the top 10 apps if the group_by field specified is the app_id. The search pattern required can be the same as the patterns mentioned above.

You will format the data in the output variable and pass it to the next action using the custom $export() function.

Step 3: Add a Loop from the Loop section and connect it to the Node.js Code block. Use the following settings for the Loop:

In the Select Loop Type dropdown, select the Each Item option.

For Source Array/Object, use the following:

{{$a0.output.done.search_patterns}}

where, a0 is the activity ID of the Node.js Code action.

Note: Use the keyboard shortcut (Shift + i) to see activity IDs of all the actions on canvas.

Step 4: Now, add the Get Search Results Count by Field action from Loggly and place it inside the Loop. Connect the Loggly action to the start point of the Loop on the left.

Step 5: Edit the settings for the Loggly action as follows:

Label – You can use your custom label, or leave it set to the default (i.e. “Get Search Results Count by Field”).
•

Loggly Connection – Select an existing Loggly Connection, or add a new one if you don’t have an existing authentication. A new Loggly Connection will require the following input parameters:

Here, a1 is the action ID of the Loop and $a1.currentIndex consists of the current index number of the object/array being iterated in the Loop (for us, it is search_patterns).

Search Date Type – Select Relative Timeframe for Search Date Type.

Relative Timeframe – Select Last Day for Relative Timeframe. That means, you will be retrieving application stats from Loggly for the last 24 hours.

Query – Click Show Optional Fields, and the Query field will look like this:

{{$a0.output.done.search_patterns[{{$a1.currentIndex}}].query}}

Size – The Size is the number of records to be fetched for the log messages. As the top 10 applications and users are to be retrieved, you will set the size as 10.

Step 6: Add Flow Store from the Developer tools section and place it inside the Loop along side the Loggly action. Connect it to the Loggly action on the left and connect it to the end of the Loop on the right. This action is used to store the data that is retrieved from Loggly. The data is stored in key-value pairs and is accessible outside of the Loop.

Step 8: Add one more Flow Store action outside of the Loop. In the previous Flow Store, all required values are set. Now you need to retrieve those key-value pairs. Connect this Flow Store action with the Loop.

Step 9: Use the settings below for Flow Store action:

Flow Store – Set the Flow Store as Get.

For Get Data 1, Key will be:

{{$a0.output.done.search_patterns[0].name}}

Click Add to get one more Key.

For Get Data 2, Key will be:

{{$a0.output.done.search_patterns[1].name}}

Similarly, for Get Data 3 and 4, Key will be as follows:
Get Data 3 Key:

{{$a0.output.done.top_app_fields[0].name}}

Get Data 4 Key:

{{$a0.output.done.top_app_fields[1].name}}

Step 10: Add Send an Email action from the Notification section, and connect it to the Flow Store. Also, connect this action to the stop as this is the final step in this workflow.

Step 11: Use the settings below for the Send an Email action:

Enter the appropriate recipient(s) for the email notification.

Set your ‘Subject’ for the email (e.g., Daily Application Summary).

The value for the email body will be as follows:

{{$a2.data}}

where ‘a2’ is the ID for the last Flow Store. This variable will have a set of key-value pairs retrieved from the Flow Store action. You can customize the email body format at any time.

Step 12: Save the workflow.

Step 13: Now that you’ve built the workflow, you can manually run it to ensure there are no errors. For this, you need to add a trigger:

Click the Settings icon on the Play action.

Select or Search the Clock from the list of available triggers.

Select an existing schedule for the Clock trigger or create a new event for it.

Trigger Label – Add a custom label to the Clock trigger.

Trigger Type – Select Trigger Type as Repeat.

Runs on every – Select frequency to run as 1 Day.

Save the Clock trigger.

Your completed workflow should look as follows:

The logic involved in this example can be developed and extended as appropriate. Through this approach, you can track various user activities and application events.

The following workflow is based on similar logic, with additional parameters and conditions added to match it with the application usage requirements in the production environment:

Conclusion

Loggly provides a great interface to analyze diverse application logs from various systems. Built.io Flow helps process the search results obtained from Loggly. Combining Built.io Flow and Loggly is a perfect alternative to analytics tools.

This implementation has helped us automate getting a daily overview of production applications so that everyone is aware of how many workflows were run on our platform and how many were successful, failed, or stopped by a user.

Getting these reports from production helps the executive team draw meaningful insights from what’s going on with our customers so they can determine which business strategies to pursue. Put simply, automating this process provides direct value to the company.

The industry-first app toggles between the team and the venue so that fans can take advantage of game info and other events like concerts throughout the year. It was co-developed by Built.io and the Sacramento Kings in-house technology team and designed by digital creative agency M&C Saatchi LA.

"Today's modern sports fans expect their experiences to be digital, smart and automated no matter where they watch the game," said Neha Sampat, CEO, Built.io. "With the Sacramento Kings + Golden 1 Center App, fans have everything they need to enjoy an intuitive experience, by accessing real-time information about essential functions – leading to a world-class fan experience."

How We Built It

Behind the scenes, the Sacramento Kings + Golden 1 Center app's backend runs 1,500 automations per game across 10 unique application program interfaces, ranging from the NBA to Urban Airship to PubNub. The app uses Built.io Flow and Built.io Backend to create real-time APIs that deliver instant updates to all fans. This synchronizes real-time experiences with up-to-the-moment scores, play-by-play info, shot-chart details, team and player stats, and more.

In addition, Built.io Flow continuously polls the NBA APIs for the latest game stats (updated by the NBA every five seconds) and stores them in Built.io Backend. This new standard of how professional sports teams seamlessly integrate physical and digital touchpoints ultimately builds loyalty and a better user experience for fans.

"Our app serves as a one-of-a-kind remote control to Golden 1 Center, the world's most technologically advanced sports and entertainment venue," said Kings Chief Technology Officer Ryan Montoya. "Through the app, fans are able to connect with enhanced arena features, engage with their friends, and create a seamless event experience from the time they wake up to when they leave the arena like never before."

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/sacramento-kings-golden-1-center-app-built-on-builtio-wins-appy-award-in-sportshttps://www.built.io/blog/sacramento-kings-golden-1-center-app-built-on-builtio-wins-appy-award-in-sportsFri, 19 May 2017 00:00:00 GMTThis post first appeared on infoworld.com

With JavaScript and the V8 engine at the core, an event-driven architecture, and scalability out of the box, Node.js has quickly become the new de facto standard for creating web applications and SaaS products. Many frameworks like Express, Sails, and Socket.IO enable users to quickly bootstrap applications and focus only on the business logic.

Of course Node.js owes much to JavaScript for its enormous popularity. JavaScript is a multiparadigm language that supports many different styles of programming, including functional programming, procedural programming, and object-oriented programming. It allows the developer to be flexible and take advantage of the various programming styles.

But JavaScript can be a double-edged sword. The multiparadigm nature of JavaScript means that nearly everything is mutable. Thus, you can’t brush aside the probability of object and scope mutation when writing Node.js code. Because JavaScript lacks tail call optimization (which allows recursive functions to reuse stack frames for recursive calls), it’s dangerous to use recursion for large iterations. In addition to pitfalls like these, Node.js is single threaded, so it's imperative for developers to write asynchronous code.

JavaScript can be a boon if used with care—or a bane if you are reckless. Following structured rules, design patterns, key concepts, and basic rules of thumb will help you choose the optimal approach to a problem. Which key concepts should Node.js programmers understand? Below I’ll share the 10 JavaScript concepts that I believe are most essential to writing efficient and scalable Node.js code.

1. Immediately invoked function expressions

An immediately invoked function expression (IIFE) is a function that's executed as soon as it's created. It has no connection with any events or asynchronous execution. You can define an IIFE as shown below:

(function(){
// all your code here
// ...
})();

The first pair of parentheses function(){...} converts the code inside the parentheses into an expression.The second pair of parentheses calls the function resulting from the expression. An IIFE can also be described as a self-invoking anonymous function. Its most common usage is to limit the scope of a variable made via var or to encapsulate context to avoid name collisions.

2. Closures

A closure in JavaScript is an inner function that has access to its outer function's scope, even after the outer function has returned control. A closure makes the variables of the inner function private. A simple example of a closure is shown below:

The variable count is assigned an outer function. The outer function runs only once, which sets the counter to zero and returns an inner function. The _counter variable can be accessed only by the inner function, which makes it behave like a private variable.

3. Prototypes

Every JavaScript function has a prototype property that is used to attach properties and methods. This property is not enumerable. It allows the developer to attach methods or member functions to its objects. JavaScript supports inheritance only through the prototype property. In case of an inherited object, the prototype property points to the object’s parent. A common approach to attach methods to a function is to use prototypes as shown below:

4. Private properties, using closures

JavaScript lets you define private properties by using the underscore prefix as shown in the above example. However, this does not prevent a user from directly accessing or modifying a property that is supposed to be private.

Defining private properties using closures will help you solve this problem. The member functions that need access to private properties should be defined on the object itself. You can make private properties using closures as shown below:

5. The Module pattern

The Module pattern is the most frequently used design pattern in JavaScript for achieving loosely coupled, well-structured code. It allows you to create public and private access levels. One way to achieve a Module pattern is shown below:

The Revealing Module pattern is similar to the Module pattern wherein the variables and methods that need to be exposed are returned in an object literal. The above example can be written using the Revealing Module pattern as follows:

6. Hoisting

JavaScript moves variables and function declarations to the top of their scope before code execution. This is called hoisting. Regardless of where you place the declaration of functions and variables in your code, they are moved to the top of their scope by the interpreter. This may or may not be where you want them. If not, then your program will have errors.

Variable declarations are processed before any code is executed. Ironically, undeclared variables do not exist until they are assigned a value. This causes all undeclared variables to become global variables. Though function declarations are hoisted, function expressions are not hoisted. JavaScript has an order of priority while hoisting variables and functions.

The priority is given below from higher to lower:

Variable assignment

Function declaration

Variable declarations

To avoid bugs, you should declare your variables and functions at the beginning of every scope.

7. Currying

Currying is a method of making functions more flexible. With a curried function, you can pass all of the arguments that the function is expecting and get the result, or you can pass only a subset of arguments and receive a function back that waits for the rest of the arguments. A simple example of a curry is given below:

8. The apply, call, and bind methods

It’s imperative for any JavaScript developer to understand the difference between the call, apply, and bind methods. The three functions are similar in that their first argument is always the “this” value, or context, that you want to give the function you are calling the method on.

Of the three, call is the easiest. It's the same as invoking a function while specifying its context. Here’s an example:

apply is nearly the same as call. The only difference is that you pass arguments as an array and not separately. Arrays are easier to manipulate in JavaScript, opening a larger number of possibilities for working with functions. Here is an example using apply and call:

9. Memoization

Memoization is an optimization technique that speeds up function execution by storing results of expensive operations and returning the cached results when the same set of inputs occur again. JavaScript objects behave like associative arrays, making it easy to implement memoization in JavaScript. For example, we can convert a recursive factorial function into a memoized factorial function as shown below:

10. Method overloading

Method overloading allows multiple methods to have the same name but different arguments. The compiler or interpreter determines which function to call based on the number of arguments passed. Method overloading is not directly supported in JavaScript. But you can achieve something very much like it as shown below:

As you become well-versed with Node.js, you'll notice there are many ways to solve almost every problem. But taking the right approach is critical. A wrong approach will result in multiple side effects like patchy or buggy applications or regressions that force you to rewrite the entire logic. On the flip side, the right approach will lay the foundation for a robust, efficient, and scalable application.

The 10 JavaScript concepts described in this article are basics every Node.js developer should know. But they are the tip of the iceberg. JavaScript is powerful and complex. The more you use it, the more you will understand how vast JavaScript really is. A better understanding of such an extensive language will certainly help you avoid mistakes. In the meantime, get the basics right and you’ll see great results.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/10-javascript-concepts-nodejs-programmers-must-masterhttps://www.built.io/blog/10-javascript-concepts-nodejs-programmers-must-masterTue, 16 May 2017 00:00:00 GMT“Should I pick one cookie or two? If the cookie is too small, maybe I will pick up two. If it’s big, I will pick up just one. Or I won’t take any, if mom is watching.”

Life is full of choices. We make our choice based on the situation we are in or by gauging the possible consequences of each choice. And it’s not always easy.

Thankfully, making decisions in Built.io Flow Express is easy with our newest feature. The If-Then-Else action makes tough decisions on your behalf by enabling your workflow to execute different actions depending on the conditions.

Here’s how it works:

Define a set of conditions

If the conditions are met, the workflow will choose a set of defined actions that will be executed

If the conditions are not met, it will execute the other set of actions

If-Then-Else Examples

Here are some examples of workflows that can be created using the If/Then/Else action.

If a new lead added in Salesforce contains a phone number, send a text message. Else, send an email.

OR

If the bug added in Zoho Projects is assigned to employee X or employee Y, send an email to Team A. Else, send the email to Team B.

OR

If the title of a new task in Wunderlist contains the word ‘Project X’, send the task details to a room in Cisco Spark, add the task in Trello, and create a note in Evernote. If it does not contain the word ‘Project X’, then put the task in an existing Google Sheet.

You can specify multiple conditions using the ‘And’ and ‘Or’ operators, as seen in second example above. And you can specify multiple actions for ‘If-true’ or ‘Else’, as seen in the third example. You can also use multiple If-Then-Else actions in a single flow.

The beauty of this action is that it keeps your automation tasks going even if the output of an action or trigger is uncertain or unknown. It doesn’t remove the uncertainty, but it lets you automate a part of it.

Ready to start incorporating If/Then/Else logic into your workflows? Log in or read more about how to use it here.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/introducing-if-then-else-in-builtio-flow-expresshttps://www.built.io/blog/introducing-if-then-else-in-builtio-flow-expressMon, 15 May 2017 00:00:00 GMTJavaScript is a multi-paradigm language supporting many different styles of programming, like functional programming, procedural programming (like C) and object-oriented programming. It allows the developer to be flexible and take advantage of the various programming styles. Therefore, the developer community is quickly adopting Node.js as the new defacto standard for creating web applications or SaaS products. Many frameworks like expressJS, sailsJS and socketIO enable users to quickly bootstrap applications and focus only on the business logic.

JavaScript can be a boon if developed with care, or a bane if you are reckless. It does not have tail call optimization (which allows recursive functions to reuse stack frames for recursive calls). Without this, it's dangerous to use recursion for large iterations. Furthermore, Node.js being single threaded makes it imperative for developers to write asynchronous code. Multi-paradigm nature of Javascript is that it forces everything to be mutable. Probability of object and scope mutation should not be brushed aside while writing Node.js code.

As you get well-versed with Node.js, you may notice that there are many ways to solve one problem. But taking the right approach towards solving it is extremely critical. A wrong approach will result in multiple side effects like patchy or buggy applications or regressions to such an extent that force you to completely rewrite the entire logic. On the flip side, it can lay foundation for a robust, efficient and scalable application if the right approach is taken. Using structured rules, design patterns, concepts or basic rules of thumb will help you choose the most optimal approach for a problem. The following concepts will aid you in leveraging the power of Javascript language and writing efficient Node.js code:

1. Immediately-invoked function expression

It is a function that is executed as soon as it is created, not parsed. It has no connection with any events or asynchronous execution. You can define an IIFE as shown below:

(function(){
// all your code here
// ...
})();

The first pair of parentheses (function(){...}) converts the code inside the parentheses into an expression.The second pair of parentheses calls the function resulting from the expression. It can also be described as a self invoking anonymous function. Its most common usage is to limit scope of a variable made via var or to encapsulate context and avoid name collisions.

2. Closure

Closure is a javascript inner function that has access to its outer function's scope, even after the outer function has returned control. It makes a function have private variables. A simple example of a closure is shown below:

The variable count is assigned an outer function. The outer function only runs once, which sets the counter to zero and returns an inner function. The counter variable can only be accessed by the inner function, which makes it behave like a private variable.

3. Prototype

Every javascript function has a prototype property that is used to attach properties and methods. This property is not enumerable. It allows the developer to attach methods or member functions to its objects. Javascript supports inheritance only through the prototype property. In case of an inherited object, the prototype property points to the object’s parent. A common approach to attach methods to a function is shown below:

4. Private properties, using closures

In Javascript, you can define private properties by using the underscore prefix as shown in the above example. However, this does not prevent a user from directly accessing or modifying a property that is supposed to be private.

Defining private properties using closures will help you solve this problem. The member functions that need access to private properties should be defined on the object itself. You can make private properties using closures as shown below:

5. Module Pattern

Module pattern is the most frequently used design pattern in Javascript for achieving loosely coupled well-structured code. It allows to create public and private access levels. One way to achieve a module pattern is shown below:

Revealing Module Pattern is similar to the Module pattern wherein the variables and methods that need to be exposed are returned in an object literal. The above example can be written using Revealing Module Pattern as:

6. Hoisting

Javascript moves variables and function declarations to the top of their scope before code execution. This is called Hoisting. Regardless of the declaration of functions and variables, they are moved to the top of their scope.

Variable declarations are processed before any code is executed. Ironically, undeclared variables do not exist until they are assigned a value. This causes all undeclared variables to become global variables. Though function declarations are hoisted, Function expressions are not hoisted. JavaScript has an order of priority while hoisting variables and functions.

The priority is given below from higher to lower:

Variable assignment

Function declaration

Variable declarations

7. Currying

Currying is a method where you can pass all arguments that a function is expecting and get the result, or just pass a subset of arguments and receive a function back that’s waiting for the rest of the arguments. A simple example of a curry is given below:

The original curried function can be called directly by passing each of the parameters in a separate set of parentheses one after the other as shown below:

myFirstCurry("Hey, wassup!")("Rahul"); //"Hey, wassup!, Rahul"

8. Javascript Apply, Call and Bind Methods

It’s imperative that a JavaScript developer understands the difference between Call, apply and bind functions. All the three functions have one common similarity, their first argument is always the ‘this’ value, or context, that you want to give the function you are calling the method on.

1. Call

It is the easiest of all three. It's the same as invoking a function while specifying its context. Here’s an example:

2. Apply

It is the same as call, but the only difference is that you pass arguments as an array and not separately. Arrays are easier to manipulate in JavaScript, opening a larger number of possibilities for working with functions. Here is an example using apply and call:

9. Memoization

Memoization is an optimization technique used to speed up function executions by storing results of expensive operations and returning the cached results when the same set of inputs occur again. JavaScript objects behave like associative objects and arrays aid implementing memoization. We can convert a recursive factorial function into a memoized factorial function as shows below:

10. Method Overloading

Method overloading is a concept where a function can have the same name but different arguments. Compiler would determine which function to call based on the number of arguments passed. Method overloading is not directly possible in JavaScript. You can achieve it as shown below:

Conclusion

Node.js is the future of web applications. V8 and JavaScript as the core, event-driven nature and out-of-the-box scalability pushes rapid development cycle, which are crucial in today's world. In my opinion, the 10 JavaScript concepts described in this article are the basic concepts any Node.js developer should know. But they are just the tip of the iceberg. Javascript is complicated, but yet powerful enough for developers to stop and take notice.The more you use it, the more you will understand how vast Javascript really is. Unearthing more knowledge about such a vast language will certainly help you avoid mistakes. I encourage everyone to learn more basic Javascript and basic Node.js. Get the basics right and you’ll see great results.

The ‘Switch’ action is like a selection control mechanism that allows a workflow to choose an execution path (from the given options) depending on the condition being met.

How to use ‘Switch’

Add Switch to your workflow and provide multiple execution paths branching out of it. Configure Switch by specifying various cases (conditions) and the execution path it should take for each case.

When the workflow runs, Switch checks if any condition is being met. In case a condition is met, it takes the corresponding execution path. If no condition is met, it takes the path specified as the default path.

Since all the conditions are defined inside a single block, it gets executed faster than the multiple conditional blocks defined for independent actions. This will not only reduce overall workflow execution time but will also consume less credits to execute your workflow.

It’s an extremely useful tool especially when you do not know the exact nature of the output of the preceding actions of your workflow.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/take-control-of-your-workflow-with-switchhttps://www.built.io/blog/take-control-of-your-workflow-with-switchThu, 04 May 2017 00:00:00 GMTPlease note this is a semi-technical feature.

Many iPaaS platforms today don’t offer a way to fetch a collection of multiple items, and those that do require you to use code. This is problematic because non-technical people also need access to this task sometimes. For instance, some providers may offer an action that helps you fetch a collection of all the notebooks available in your Evernote account. However, your ‘collection’ of information includes a lot of details about the notebooks like the title, description, id, date of creation, and version. But in most cases, you simply want the titles of the notebooks. And to do this, you have to write some code.

This is a major pain point that the new ‘Formatter’ action addresses. It lets you pick any element or value of any key from a collection and use it in another action without writing any code. So, in the above example, you can easily fetch only the names of all the notebooks and pass them to other action in your workflow.

The Formatter action allows users to format, transform, or extract text and html data quickly and easily. It provides various ways to separate data such as adding in a new line, comma, semicolon, colon, bar, tab, and more for text formatting. For HTML, Formatter provides ordered lists, unordered lists, and table format data.

In this post, we’ll walk you through how to use Formatter.

How Formatter Works

Because this is a semi-technical feature, we’ll walk you through how to achieve customized and formatted data from a collection of data items.

Build a workflow with a collection

Before getting started with Formatter, you need a workflow that uses an action that returns a collection (defined as an array of objects). Once implemented, you can format that data using the 'Formatter' action.

The action we’ll use as an example is Evernote’s ‘Get List of Notebooks’. It returns a collection that contains a lot of data about all the notebooks in your account. In the steps given below, you’ll learn how to fetch only the titles of the notebooks using Formatter. You’ll also learn what outputs are available for your data.

Add the ‘Evernote - Get List of Notebooks’ action to your workflow. Configure this action as you normally do. Then, add the Formatter action.

Here’s how to use Formatter.

Choose your collection

1. Select a 'collection' to be formatted

In this example, that’s ‘Evernote — Get List of Notebooks’. In the ‘Select a collection’ field, select the collection from which you wish to fetch details. In this case, there is only one collection available – Notebooks.

Select Your Format Type

2. Select format type — Text

To format your collection in text format, go to the 'Select format type' field of your configuration page and choose the 'text' option

Next to to ‘Select Fields’ and choose the value that you want to extract.

If you want to extract all the titles of the notebooks from your Evernote account, you need to select the 'Notebooks Name' key from the dropdown options.

Now, the next field ‘Select record separator’ lets you apply a record separator on your collection data. This option specifies how you wish to format or structure your output. Lets select 'New Line' from the list of record separators. This will structure the data in such a way that each title is printed on a new line.

You can use 'Gmail — Send an Email' action to check your formatted output. Save and Test your flow.

2.1. Formatted output using record separator:

For 'New Line' separator

For 'Comma' separator

3. Select format type — HTML

If you wish to print the data in HTML format, you need to select 'html' option in the 'Select format type' field of your configuration page, and then select a relevant list type.

For HTML formating, the customized output can be retrieved in the form of unordered list, or ordered list, or table format. This option specifies how you wish to format or structure your output.

Selecting the 'unordered list' option from the 'Select list type' field formats your collection into an unordered list (bullet points). You can use Gmail — Send an Email action to view your formatted output. Note that you need to select 'HTML' in the 'body type' field of Gmail action. This is applicable only if you wish to retrieve your customized output in HTML format type.

3.1 Output for Ordered list

3.2 Output for Unordered list

Similarly, if you select 'table' option from the 'Select list type' field of Formatter action, you will retrieve output in a tabular format.

Now that you know how this feature works, it’s time to try it out in your Built.io Flow Express workflows. Also, please provide your views on how helpful this feature is.

Microservices are emerging as a preferred way to create enterprise applications. Just like mobile app development adoption five years ago, a lack of expertise can slow down some companies in their pursuit. However, with IoT development on the rise, it’s inevitable that microservices will become the architecture of choice for developers – today and tomorrow.

Although it has received criticism for not fitting into certain DevOps cultures, microservices are increasingly adopted and gaining fans across numerous industries. Large scale online services like Amazon, Netflix and Twitter have all evolved from monolithic technology stacks to a microservices-driven architecture, which allowed them to scale to their size today. Microservices are ideal for supporting a range of platforms and devices spanning web, mobile, IoT (including wearables). When developing for IoT specifically, here are the five considerations for why the future is bright with microservices:

Lower Cost: IoT sensors and devices are fairly affordable today. That said, it is almost always more cost effective to roll out hundreds of small sensors that each do one thing really well, instead of opting for fewer, but more powerful and more pricey options. One big reason for this is that no matter the device, in just a few years, most will become ‘obsolete’ or superseded by more sophisticated, more cost-effective alternatives. The beauty of going with the simpler hardware is that you can rely on microservices to add value and fill functional gaps. You can also gradually roll out the network and continue to upgrade and maintain it in a cost effective manner as individual components get replaced. Done right, this means you’re never in a position where you have to replace an entire monolithic system in one go.

Faster Innovation: The world of IoT deployments is generally still very much in beta. Although there are already billions of cool and useful devices deployed, we’re still only scratching the surface when it comes to unlocking their full potential. A microservices development approach allows you to unlock innovation (and thus value) faster, by making it easy to test new combinations of ‘things’ and ‘services’. No need to build an entire technology stack or invest in big infrastructure over many months. With microservices, you can tinker and test to your heart’s content and quickly reap the benefits of innovative solutions to your problems.

Isolated Risk: Assembling your solution via microservices allows you to adjust and iterate quickly, thus avoiding the danger of missing the mark. You can do this without having to re-architect your entire system or IT environment. Most mobile and web application developers have already found great success in applying agile development. Developing for IoT, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to build a full feature on top of a device in just a week. However, by focusing on building microservices in 1-2 week sprints, you can keep moving towards the finish line and connect all the APIs you need, one by one, with dramatically lowered risk.

Flexibility And Agility: Another major benefit of leveraging microservices is that if, after testing, you determine that a particular service isn’t working out, you can replace it with something better or more tailored to your needs. A microservices approach to development and integration allows you to build a feature quickly and improve on it over time. When it’s ready to be replaced, you’re just updating one piece of the puzzle without having to worry about impacting the rest of the picture.

Unlimited Value Add: The device you deploy is never going to transcend its physical capabilities until you upgrade or replace its physical components. The digital upgrades you can provide via constantly evolving microservices, however, are unlimited both in their scope and their frequency. A camera may be designed to only capture 2D images, but depending on the third party service it’s linked to, it might provide you with statistical traffic information, queue sizes, or weather information.

Soon enough, it will become hard to remember the time when enterprises did not by default turn to microservices. With the rise of IoT, there’s a perfect storm brewing that will push microservices into new and traditional industries. The benefits are high, the risk is low and the savings in terms of cost and resources make this one a no-brainer.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/five-things-to-know-about-the-future-of-microservices-and-iothttps://www.built.io/blog/five-things-to-know-about-the-future-of-microservices-and-iotThu, 27 Apr 2017 00:00:00 GMTLast week we introduced a new feature on Built.io Flow Enterprise, ‘Inline Expression’. Here’s a look at what this technical hack can help you do.

Now you can apply custom JavaScript logic to inputs in-line without a Node.js action - this reduces workflow complexity and also minimizes overall execution time.

The Inline Expression block is enabled for the input fields of all the services we support and is identified by the ‘’ icon. Just search for the icon to apply custom code on the inputs of any action.

Here’s A Look At How It Works

Open any existing workflow and double click on the action in which you wish to apply custom logic.

Locate the input field on which you wish to apply custom logic and click on the ‘’ icon given beside it.

This will open a new console window where you can write the custom logic. You can also use the output of previous action/trigger and apply custom logic on it.

Once you are done writing the code, click on ‘Save’. This will take you back to action configuration window. You can now see an ‘Inline Expression’ tag in the specified input field.

Click on ‘Done’ and then ‘Run’ the workflow.

You can learn more about using ‘Inline Expression’ block
here.
]]>https://www.built.io/blog/inline-expression-how-to-add-custom-logic-to-inputs-in-nodejs-on-builtio-flow-enterprisehttps://www.built.io/blog/inline-expression-how-to-add-custom-logic-to-inputs-in-nodejs-on-builtio-flow-enterpriseMon, 24 Apr 2017 00:00:00 GMT® Flow Enterprise™: Inline Expression, Nested Lookup, And Reset Webhook URLs]]>We’ve made some updates that enhance the integration experience and performance of your workflows. Here are the highlights of these week’s release.

Easier Coding With Inline Expression

Developers and technical people - this one’s for you. Now you can apply JavaScript logic to inputs in-line without a Node.js action - just search for the ‘Inline Expression ()’ option to apply custom code on the inputs of any action. This reduces workflow complexity and also minimizes overall execution time. Learn more about it here.

Search Is Easier For Box And Dropbox With ‘Nested Lookup’

Searching your files/folders in actions just got easy! You can now look up for files and folders within the nested folder structure in cloud storage services such as Box and Dropbox. This eliminates the need to manually enter file/folder IDs each time you wish to search/retrieve a nested file/folder.

An Extra Layer Of Security For Webhooks

You can now regenerate a webhook URL for an existing workflow any time by using the 'Reset Webhook' button in the webhook trigger configuration window. This ensures that the workflow is secure even if the webhook URL has been compromised.

Ensuring system security is as important as ensuring overall application security. A Host-based Intrusion Detection Systems (HIDS) provides the ability to identify, detect, and notify any unanticipated system changes that might impact the security of the system. HIDS is a powerful tool to maintain security standards implemented across IT systems. The Open Source HIDS SECurity (OSSEC) tool is one of the more popular HIDS options around.

OSSEC Architecture

The OSSEC tool can be implemented in multiple ways and largely depends on your infrastructure, that is, whether you have a fixed number of servers, or you have infrastructure that is frequently scaled – up and down.

Traditional Server-Agent Model

The traditional server-agent model can be followed to monitor the servers with a lightweight agent installed on them, where all agents report to the central OSSEC manager (Server) to analyze the events and to generate event notifications as appropriate.

This model works quite well for small and large, fixed setups. However, there are trade-offs:

Additional server management overhead: You need to manage the OSSEC server itself, along with its agents.

Adding or removing agents overhead: If you have a dynamic environment, which involves frequent scaling of servers, then a custom solution is needed to automatically register and de-register the agents in the OSSEC server, when scaling occurs.

Limited high availability of OSSEC server: There is an open feature request for making the OSSEC server highly available. Until this has been addressed, your best option is to keep a standby server with the configuration and data volumes replicated in realtime.

Local Model

The OSSEC can also be installed in a local model, where each server monitors itself. The local OSSEC installation eliminates maintenance overhead for the OSSEC server. In addition, each server reports incidents and unauthorized events.

Below you will find the steps required to install and incorporate the local model OSSEC into dynamic infrastructure.

OSSEC Installation

First, you need to install the required packages:

apt-get update
apt-get install build-essential inotify-tools

The build-essential package will install the required packages for the compilation steps involved in OSSEC installation. The inotify-tools package is used in real-time notifications.

While downloading, verify that it is a signed commit in the OSSEC repo. You might have noticed that we downloaded the RC build for OSSEC, instead of the stable version. The reason for this is that the recent “stable” OSSEC version (v2.8.3) was released in Oct. 2015 and is considered a bit outdated now. Especially for today’s agile environments, you want to start with the HIDS setup that includes all the latest features and fixes available.

Go to the OSSEC directory and copy the following variables into preloaded-vars.conf:

The default frequency for full scans is 6 hours, i.e. 21,600 seconds but you can change this to 1 hour or 24 hours – the scan itself is performed slowly to avoid any adverse impact on CPU/memory.

By default, this option is set to “no”. You can set this to “yes”, and get notified when new files are created. However, this option only works during full scans that are performed at the frequency specified by you.

Another attribute that is set to “no” by default. This option is kept disabled to avoid sending out unnecessary, large numbers of notifications in case of misconfiguration. You can enable this option to receive a notification for all file changes as they happen. If disabled, then the OSSEC automatically ignores file changes after a 3rd change.

Rule Configuration

The OSSEC does not send notifications for new files by default. In order to enable this, you need to overwrite the corresponding rule in local_rules.xml.

Make a backup of local_rules.xml and add the following configuration block at the end (it should be present within the ... section):

This file can be sent either to a custom Elasticsearch server, or any managed centralised logging solution, such as Loggly. If you are using a managed centralised logging solution, you will also have the ability to generate a custom email notification on specific changes, or a specific set of servers. This approach significantly reduces non-essential email traffic.

Slack Notification Configuration

Add the following configuration in ossec.conf to enable Slack notifications:

By setting the attribute to your desired value, you can filter out notifications and continue to receive only high priority incidents on Slack. Also, you need to update ossec-slack.sh located at /var/ossec/active-response/bin with the following parameters:

SLACKUSER="ossec-alerts"
CHANNEL=""
SITE=""

The SLACKUSER is a custom name you would like to give to OSSEC alert notifier.

The CHANNEL specifies the name of a channel (public) or a group (private). If it is a group, then directly mention its name, e.g. ossec-alerts. If it is a channel, then you will need to include a hashtag (#) in the name, e.g. #ossec-alerts.

The SITE will specify a URL to the incoming Slack webhook. You can configure an incoming Slack webhook here.

To have the configurations take effect, restart OSSEC with the following command:

/var/ossec/bin/ossec-control restart

Proposed Architecture

The proposed architecture for OSSEC with local model utilizes the tools that are generally available nowadays in agile environments. This approach also gives an ability for admins to receive selective notifications through Slack or email, and yet keep track of all events in a centralised place, which can be accessed with greater ease than perusing email. The configuration changes to OSSEC can be managed through deployment tools such as Chef or Puppet. The architecture then looks like this:

This proposed architecture for OSSEC leverages the utilities that many enterprises already have or can easily deploy today, including a centralised logging solution and a company-wide communications platform such as Slack or Cisco Spark. The implementation described focuses on the distributed architecture, often the norm as applications grow. By deploying this solution to a large number of servers, OSSEC admins can receive important event notifications in an efficient, targeted manner without being inundated with irrelevant messages.

Key takeaways:

The proposed architecture for OSSEC leverages the utilities that many enterprises either already have in use or can easily be deployed today. That includes a centralized logging solution and a company-wide communications platform such as Cisco Spark, Slack or HipChat. All the modifications and updates to the OSSEC software itself can be handled through existing widely used configuration management solutions, such as Chef, Puppet.

The proposed implementation described in the article focuses on distributed architecture, often the norm as applications grow. It is essential to consider this point when the component (here, OSSEC) will be an integral part of every application server.

By deploying this solution to a large number of servers, OSSEC admins can receive important event notifications in an efficient, targeted manner without being inundated with irrelevant messages. This way, the real incidents can be filtered out from pseudo ones. Also, as the incident information becomes available, the OSSEC admins can troubleshoot the relevant issues quickly.

Term Definitions for the Guide Glossary:

Host-based Intrusion Detection System (HIDS) - An Host-based Intrusion Detection System is a software application that monitors and analyzes a computer system for any unauthorised activity.

Dynamic or Agile Environment - The dynamic or agile environment is where servers are frequently scaled up or down.

Centralised Logging Solution - The centralised logging solution is either custom managed Elasticsearch-Logstash-Kibana (ELK) stack or a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution. Having a centralised logging solution enables programmers or admins to easily view, compare and correlate logs from different servers at the same place.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/how-to-implement-a-host-based-intrusion-detection-system--hids-in-the-cloudhttps://www.built.io/blog/how-to-implement-a-host-based-intrusion-detection-system--hids-in-the-cloudTue, 11 Apr 2017 08:00:00 GMTWe’ve made some improvements to triggers! See what we’ve been up to below.

Edit Triggers From Your Canvas

We’ve added the ability to edit a trigger right from your canvas for easy access.

Here’s a quick run through of how to do this:

Log in to your Built.io Flow Enterprise account. Open any workflow that has a trigger configured in it.

Double click on the ‘Start’ icon (which now has the icon of the service used as a trigger). You will see the list of all triggers of your account that are associated with the service.

Click on the ‘Edit’ icon of the trigger - this looks like a pencil. Doing this will open up the trigger configuration page where you can make your changes.

Introducing Tigger Versioning

Built.io Flow Enterprise now supports trigger versioning. This preserves your older triggers and ensures that existing workflows continue to run smoothly throughout any updates.

Upgraded Integrations

We have revamped some of our most popular services – Salesforce, Quickbooks, Evernote, Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Sheets – to offer you better performance, smoother integrations, and overall a great automation experience. Check them out here and login to start building workflows.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/builtio-flow-enterprise-gets-productivity-boost-with-updates-to-triggershttps://www.built.io/blog/builtio-flow-enterprise-gets-productivity-boost-with-updates-to-triggersFri, 07 Apr 2017 07:00:00 GMTWe’ve made some better design choices on Built.io Flow Express with you in mind! Check them out below and let us know what you think.

A refreshing new design

The interface is now cleaner, bolder and better, and enables even faster, simpler integrations. Try it now.

New Formatter for Data Arrays

Formatter (our advanced tool) got a facelift! Now it’s easier to reformat your data output since you can now separate strings of text, objects, or html instantly. This is especially helpful when your data source is an array, like an Evernote ‘List of Notebooks’. Learn more.

Do more with Text Operations

Technical people - you can now do more with text operations. Updates include being able to split, trim, match, replace, change the case, or convert to any format. Learn more.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/builtio-flow-express-new-design-and-feature-updateshttps://www.built.io/blog/builtio-flow-express-new-design-and-feature-updatesFri, 07 Apr 2017 00:00:00 GMTGesture control has arrived! Devices like the Myo, by Thalmic Labs, represent a huge step forward in how human beings can interact with the world around them via digital interpretation of their movements. In addition, new cloud-based services can be utilized in combination with these gesture control devices to easily add immense value to our everyday interactions.

In our session we explored how – by utilizing cloud-based integration platforms in combination with the Myo – we built and customized the foundation of J.A.R.V.I.S. (of 'Iron Man' fame) in an extremely short period of time.

Our own “Connected Parthiv” brought Tony Stark's vision to life in front of SXSW attendees. You can see his slides here, watch how it works, and get the how-to below.

How We Built J.A.R.V.I.S.

What you’ll need:

The how-to:

The first thing we need to do is setup the gesture control device, in this case we used the Myo Armband. Take the extra time to train the device to your movements so it’s more accurate.

Now we need to do something with your gestures. For this, we need to run a small piece of code on your local machine. This sends the gesture data to Built.io Flow through a webhook.

After the gesture data is sent to Built.io Flow Enterprise, we need to decide what to do with it. For this, we have a couple different options based on what you are trying to accomplish. In this example, we are using gestures to move a map around.

The last step is to update your endpoint (i.e. the map) with the new location and information.

As a complete digital transformation suite with that includes iPaaS, headless CMS and BaaS (Backend-as-a-Service) products, Built.io is in a unique position to help organizations move to digital technology through the process of digital transformation.

Integration - particularly iPaaS - is the entry point to digital transformation

Digital transformation is the process of embracing digital technology and is an iterative journey. On one end of the spectrum, some organizations are working to connect legacy systems, processes, and products to new technology, or physical things to the cloud. On the other end, an organization might already sit on top of new technology and is looking for new ways to use it to innovate or create VIP experiences. Many are somewhere in the middle.

Built.io powers digital transformation initiatives ranging from simple use cases – like connecting two disparate systems to automate a manual process – to sophisticated use cases like connected cities, connected manufacturing, and connected transportation. In this article, we will explore how Built.io has played a role in the digital transformation of two emerging verticals: Industrial IoT and SportsTech. We will also investigate how Built.io’s digital transformation platform, particularly its iPaaS (Integration Platform-as-a-Service) Built.io Flow, serves as the entry point to digital transformation.

Industrial Internet of Things: bringing together the physical and the digital world

No industry is as well positioned to benefit from the move to cloud services as the Industrial IoT (IIoT) space, which covers a broad spectrum of companies and use cases ranging from agriculture to manufacturing. Physical things – like machines – become infinitely more valuable when they are imbued with a digital heartbeat and when data can be extracted and shared on demand. Consider this supply chain management example:

During production in a factory, a physical product is given a digital heartbeat via a sensor and some form of network connectivity (e.g. Bluetooth Low Energy). Using the power of an integration platform (iPaaS), the sensor can now connect the product to a ticketing system for better, proactive customer service. Post-production, after it is delivered to the customer, if something is broken or about to break, the product alerts the customer service system – automatically. If a field support engineer is dispatched, they can arrive with all of the necessary spare parts in hand to fix or prevent the issue in a single visit. Here, both the customer benefits from great service, while the manufacturer minimizes cost and bad product reviews.
In the above scenario, a traditional industry rooted in the physical world, can cut down on cost, improve process, and innovate in new ways by leveraging digital technology. To do this, it harnesses the power of integration to help connect new systems, devices and processes to legacy hardware and older technology.

Learn more about how Integration is helping the Industrial Internet of Things industry here. Read about another compelling IIoT use case for agriculture here.

SportsTech innovates to provide VIP digital experiences for fans

SportsTech is an emerging field that applies digital technology to revolutionize the experience for sports fans and franchises alike. A prime example is a connected arena. In this scenario an organization might want to improve on the experience that a fan has in the arena to encourage physical attendance. To do this, it might deploy sensors and beacons to provide realtime data that can help fans navigate the venue, order goods and services from the comfort of their seat, or connect with other fans and players in new and interesting ways. By adopting a microservices-driven architecture, concepts like ticketless entry, realtime merchant offers, the ability to call an Uber from within the sports fan mobile app and a fully connected loyalty program become easy to incorporate.

Under the hood, all microservices, IoT devices and products are connected with an iPaaS like Built.io® Flow™. Learn more about how Integration is helping the SportsTech industry here.

Integration workflows are agnostic to technology and industries

While on the surface the Industrial Internet of Things and SportsTech may seem like different domains, under the hood, the technology requirements and business benefits are remarkably similar. In both examples above, data is streamed from a device and connected with other, relevant systems via ‘workflows’, sharing actionable information and creating an elevated experience for an end user. Workflows can be adapted at will and even be created by non-technical users, making them broadly useful across any and all industries. Furthermore, workflows are agnostic to the specific technology used; whether the device is a beacon in a connected arena for wayfinding, or a thermometer on a piece of machinery in an IIoT scenario, the integration blueprint is the same.

Instead of massive and convoluted on-premises integration middleware, iPaaS achieves better connections via microservices and conditional business logic that lives in the cloud. With simple business rules like ‘if this, then that’, iPaaS enables organizations to integrate and automate without the hassle of building out their own tool. The deeper value Built.io Flow provides – beyond the fact that it is cloud-based technology – is that it pairs ease of use with ease of deployment. With a drag and drop interface, Built.io Flow brings the power of enterprise integration to the broadest audience possible, democratizing integration and, as a result, democratizing innovation.

Looking to the future: APIs, microservices, and iPaaS

The Internet of Things is powered by the APIs that lie beneath them. If something has an API, it can be connected to something else, which in turn increases its value – because things are infinitely more useful if they work with other devices, services, or products. While the "Internet of Things" often concerns itself with the physical “things” it connects, the term "Internet of APIs” extends beyond the device to incorporate an unlimited canvas of both physical and digital connected endpoints.

Whereas consumer use cases for IoT are often one-to-one connections (an IoT device is controlled by a mobile phone, for example), for businesses, IoT is really only useful in the context of a workflow that can map back to real business processes spanning scenarios that are one-to-many and many-to-many. iPaaS then becomes the “glue” that connects the APIs and best-of-breed microservices across the world of products and devices like phones, sensors, beacons, and machines into automated workflows.

As the world of IoT continues to permeate all industries, the devices themselves will become less important. Instead the focus will be on the data and the services that complement the physical capabilities to create unique and compelling solutions – regardless of whether the user is a sports fan, a business analyst, or a factory foreman.

Learn more about how digital transformation builds business value here.

Conclusion

Integration helps organizations connect to things in new places, share with people in new ways, and bridge the past and future. Built.io’s digital transformation suite enables organizations to do this with ease.

Gartner Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Integration Platform as a Service, Keith Guttridge, Massimo Pezzini, 30 March 2017. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Last month we partnered with Cisco to make a private-cloud drone fly via Google Home speech commands and Cisco Spark while successfully transferring info from Built.io’s and Spark’s public cloud to Cisco’s private cloud devices. Watch what we’re talking about:

How Cisco Built Enterprise-Grade, Speech-Controlled Bots

Speech control of drones and robots is so popular these days that a simple Google search reveals about 14 million results on the topic. However, many of these projects are meant for hands-on technical people as opposed to business or operational folks interested mainly in outcomes. Wait no more. Cisco is already in the process of enabling speech-controlled drones and bots for secure enterprise requirements. It’s highly likely they’ll become an integral part of Cisco’s Autonomous Systems Application Platform (ASAP) in the future.

Cisco’s Karan Sheth collaborated with Built.io’s Nishant Patel and team to create a collection of enterprise-class, speech-controlled bots. As described in the diagram above, a user’s arbitrary speech or Spark commands were delivered to Cisco’s private cloud environment over Built.io’s cloud and secure enterprise gateway infrastructure. Once inside the secure infrastructure, even the smallest of hardware like Raspberry Pi could execute intended workflow commands without worrying about security or access control.

On the output side, once the results were ready to share, Built.io’s enterprise gateway and cloud engines were once again used to seamlessly deliver outcomes to intended recipients over a multitude of interfaces, including Spark rooms, Tropo text messages, emails, and more.

Riding on the success of this small initial experiment, the team embarked upon a generalized scenario testing as depicted below. Any set of sensors, drones, robots, business workflows, or scripts can be triggered using the same mechanism with result sharing happening in a dynamic, highly collaborative environment.

Check out a short video of a private-cloud drone flying via Google Home speech commands as well as Spark bot commands and posting the results back in the Spark room–all while seamlessly and securely transferring from Built.io’s and Spark’s public cloud to Cisco’s private cloud devices.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/how-to-build-a-speech-controlled-drone-and-other-bots-for-enterpriseshttps://www.built.io/blog/how-to-build-a-speech-controlled-drone-and-other-bots-for-enterprisesMon, 03 Apr 2017 07:00:00 GMTThe need to reach out to a larger market is pushing retailers to create an online presence. While there are a wide variety of online tools available to create an e-commerce website, choosing the best from the lot can be a little daunting.

Several e-commerce solution providers offer a one-size-fits-all package—including content management system (CMS)—for various requirements. This approach takes away the flexibility and expertise that each component can provide individually. The best approach is to use various best-in-breed microservices and combine them to create a solution that is more flexible and easy to use.

We recommend using a popular e-commerce solution provider (such as Snipcart) for the shopping cart needs of your site and Built.io Contentstack for managing the content. Snipcart enables you to integrate the basic functionalities of a shopping cart (sell items, process payments, manage orders) to your site, while Built.io Contentstack (being an API-first, headless CMS) lets you easily create, manage and deliver content to your e-commerce website (or to any other digital properties).

In this step-by-step tutorial, we will show you how to integrate Snipcart directly within Built.io Contentstack in a few simple steps. The resulting package is a powerful, easy-to-use e-commerce backend that is scalable and can be used by developers and business owners alike.

Prerequisites

Note: For this tutorial, we have assumed that you are familiar with Built.io Contentstack and Snipcart. If not, then please refer to the docs (Built.io Contentstack docs and Snipcart docs) for more details.

Setting It Up

Now, let’s get started with the steps.

Step 1: Create a stack

Log in to your Built.io Contentstack account, and create a new stack. This stack will hold all the data, specific to your e-commerce website. Learn more on how to create a stack.

Step 3: Import content types

For this e-commerce website example, four basic content types are required: Header, Footer, Category, and Product. For quick integration, we have already created these content types. You simply need to import them to your stack. You can also create your own content types. Learn how to do this here.

To import the content types, first save the zipped folder of the JSON files given below on your local machine. Extract the files from the folder. Then, go to your stack in Built.io Contentstack. The next screen prompts you to either create a new content type or import one into your stack. Click the "Import" link, and select the JSON file saved on your machine.

Here’s a brief overview and download links of all the content types required for this project:

Header: This content type lets you add content for the header section of the site.

Footer: The Footer content type enables you to add content for the footer section of your site.

Category: This content type lets you create the various categories of the products of your e-commerce website. The fields of this content type include name and URL.

Product: This content type will help you create the product entries of your e-commerce site. The fields include name, URL, category, price, image, and so on.

Now that all the content types are ready, let’s add some content for your e-commerce website.

Step 4: Adding content

Create entries for the Category and Products content type. Add a few entries each for the Category and Products content type. Save and publish these entries. Learn how to create and publish entries.

Create entries for the Header and Footer content types. Using the header content type, add the name and other details of your site. Similarly, add footer content using the footer content type.

With this step, you have created sample data for your e-commerce site. Now, it’s time to setup your Snipcart account and initiate Built.io Contentstack app.

Step 5: Setup Snipcart account

If you do not have an account, you can register for one here. When signing up, you can leave the field asking for website URL blank or enter a random value. This can be updated later.

Step 6: Build and configure website

Since Built.io Contentstack is a headless CMS, the content created and saved in it can be consumed by any platform, any channel, anywhere. However, to get your app up and running quickly, we have created a sample e-commerce webapp (using Node.JS) for this project.

Your e-commerce site should now be up and running! Try viewing your categories, adding items to your cart, and checking out. While your Snipcart account is in test mode, no purchases will actually be made.

Live Demo

Have a look at the demo e-commerce site that we have already created. By following the steps given above, you will be able to create a similar site.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/integrating-headless-cms-builtio-contentstack-with-ecommerce-solution-snipcarthttps://www.built.io/blog/integrating-headless-cms-builtio-contentstack-with-ecommerce-solution-snipcartFri, 24 Mar 2017 07:00:00 GMTThis week, we introduced a couple of features that give you more flexibility and control over the fields that you add to your content types. Here are the highlights of the update.

New Validation Capabilities For Fields

We have introduced a couple of validation properties for the “File” field and one validation for the “Date” field, including:

“Allowed file type(s)” for the “File” field

The “Allowed file type(s)” property lets you specify the types of files that the user will be allowed to upload. This helps you restrict users from uploading files that are not required or acceptable. A case in point is a registration form, where the user is required to upload photos in JPEG or PNG formats only or identity proof in PDF format.

“File size limit” for the “File” field

The “File size limit” property lets you specify limitations on the size of the file that can be uploaded by the user. You can set maximum as well as minimum limit for the size of the file to be uploaded.

“Set date range” for the “Date” field

The “Set date range” property lets you specify a range of dates from which the user will be allowed to select a date. You can set a start date and an end date of the range. This will restrict the user from selecting any date outside of the specified range. An example would be a date field in an event registration form, where the event is for a week or a month. By setting a date range, you can ensure that the attendee is allowed to select a date only from the specified date range.

Custom Validation Error Message Support

You can now add custom error messages for failed validations set for the fields of your content type. This can be done by using the Validation Error Message property, which we have introduced in this release. This property is available for single-line as well as multi-line text box fields. For instance, if you have set a validation for checking if the value entered is an email address, you can set a custom error message like “Please enter a valid email address,” which will be displayed if the user fails to do so.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/built-io-contentstack-new-validations-better-tractabilityhttps://www.built.io/blog/built-io-contentstack-new-validations-better-tractabilityFri, 17 Mar 2017 00:00:00 GMTIt’s no secret that we have been making waves in the sports industry for the Built.io digital transformation platform. Built.io powers the Sacramento Kings + Golden 1 Center App, bringing the world's smartest arena to life! We are proud that the Sacramento Kings were recently named the ‘Most Innovative Company in Sports’ by Fast Company and the ‘most tech savvy team of 2016’ by SportTechie.

The Miami HEAT Selects Built.io

We are extremely excited that the Miami HEAT chose Built.io and its extensible digital fan experience platform as the underlying technology to power the new fan experience for the HEAT. With Built.io, sports franchises and venues can transcend the physical and digital boundaries to engage fans in unprecedented and highly innovative ways. We can't wait to unveil some of this innovation alongside the Miami HEAT later this year.

The Miami HEAT's end goal is to boost engagement regardless of whether fans are at arena, watching from home or checking in on a mobile device. Together, We will help them achieve this by making it easy to try new technology, services, and products on-demand while they test and iterate what will work best for them via our flagship iPaaS product, Built.io® Flow™.

The team will also benefit from Built.io's headless CMS Built.io® Contentstack™ as they’ll be able to point content to any device via our API-first approach. Lastly they’ll enjoy full control of their tech stack via best of breed microservices they need to be successful in their database through our mBaaS with a pluggable architecture, Built.io® Backend™.

We are proud to contribute the technology foundation for this solution and provide the Miami HEAT with a proven and extensible digital fan experience platform. With Built.io, sports franchises and venues can transcend the physical and digital boundaries to engage fans in unprecedented and highly innovative ways.

BeyondCurious is an award-winning innovation agency that works with large organizations to accelerate their digital transformation. We’ve partnered with BeyondCurious to design and create a new comprehensive fan experience that will delight HEAT fans with value-added content and features, ultimately building long-term loyalty.

To help the HEAT develop new fan loyalty ideas more quickly, BeyondCurious will rely on CatalystGo, its proprietary offering that accelerates digital product development. With CatalystGo, integrated teams of researchers, strategists, designers and technologists incubate ideas and build products in a business accelerator, unleashing creativity while minimizing risk.

Using this agile development framework and Built.io's digital transformation platform, The HEAT can quickly test new technology and innovations, or seamlessly swap it out when something better comes along. Utilizing this agile practice will help the organization become more flexible, adapt new and better technology, and enable them to test, build, and scale faster.

The approach is to help the Miami HEAT approach it with the agility of a startup. The Built.io platform allows you to test a lot of high value ideas but know, based on data, which one is driving the right outcomes and which is driving engagement and being able to do that through agile sprints.

– Nikki Barua, CEO of BeyondCurious

I'm excited to form this partnership with Built.io and BeyondCurious. The Miami HEAT are leaders in mobile innovation, and BeyondCurious' proven methodology for accelerating innovation will take our mobile fan engagement to a higher level. Built.io's platform, meanwhile, will allow us to future-proof our investment and prepare for tomorrow's technology requirements.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/miami-heat-selects-builtiohttps://www.built.io/blog/miami-heat-selects-builtioThu, 09 Mar 2017 08:00:00 GMTCongrats to our clients the Kings, who won a #SportsTechy25 award for being the most technologically advanced sports team in the world. We’re honored that app is #BuiltonBuilt! This isn't the first time the Kings have been called out for being tech savvy. It has also been nominated by Fast Company as the 'Most Innovative Company in Sports' as noted on NBA.com.

Here are just a few of the interesting bits of technology they’ve incorporated over the last couple of years:

The Kings’ forward-thinking approach with technology clearly stems from the top, with owner Vivek Ranadivé being credited for digitizing Wall Street with his company, Teknekron Software Systems, in the 1980s. With a focus on first-to-market, the organization was the first NBA franchise to allow Bitcoin payment in 2014 while it recently became the first professional sports franchise to integrate a chatbot into Facebook messenger this past summer. With the ‘Pokémon Go’ craze of 2016, the Kings were, to no surprise, the first team to hold a meetup at its arena, too.

Prior to the 2015-16 season, the Kings live streamed their home opener in virtual reality, becoming the first NBA franchise to independently stream a regular season game using the new technology. They even used the new 360-degree technology to unveil its new jerseys for the current season. Most recently, it opened its new home — the Golden 1 Center — which now includes a dual-mode remote control app combining the team and arena apps in one experience, another first-of-its-kind.

We are honored to be a core part of their technology stack. To offer fans a connected VIP experience, the Kings launched a dual app for both the connected arena and the team powered by Built.io’s digital business suite that helps them seamlessly integrate new technology, provides a highly synchronous platform that also auto-scales, and forms the robust pillar that accommodates more than 30 integrations that are present in the app. To learn more, visit our Sacramento Kings Case Study.

The tech industry has grown at an incredible pace over the past several decades. Apart from the rapid overall industry revenue growth, in 2015, the total number of industry employees on payroll jumped by 200,000 to 6.7 million. That doesn’t even include the 1 million self-employed workers in tech. The industry as a whole accounts for 7.1 percent of the GDP in the United States. Most importantly, the growth in employment outpaced the country’s employment growth: 3 percent year-over-year in 2016 vs. 2 percent year-over-year in 2015.

What’s attracting this employment growth? To put it simply, money. The average tech industry wage in 2015 was $105,400. Compare that to the national average for the private sector, which sits at $51,600, and it’s easy to understand why more people are becoming interested in working in tech.

This disparity among industries isn’t going to change anytime soon. With a 17 percent employment growth rate expected by the Bureau of Labor and Statistics between 2014 and 2024, a tremendous appetite for jobs in the tech industry is slated for at least the next decade. In fact, by 2020, there will be 1.4 million computing jobs, but we’ll face an issue with only 400,000 computer science students.

The economic concept of supply and demand has a solution to this problem, and it’s already in the marketplace: Citizen Coders. According to Gartner, a Citizen Coder (a.k.a. Citizen Developer) is “an end user who creates new business applications for consumption by others using development and runtime environments sanctioned by corporate IT.” Companies like QuickBase are already finding that 68 percent of people designing apps for their platform don’t have any formal experience as a software engineer.

In an article in CIO.com, Karen Devine, vice president of marketing at QuickBase, said, “There’s such a big skills gap in the marketplace, and so much competition for the opportunities in the coding space. But what we were surprised to find is that only 8 percent of the respondents say they have formal coding experience, but nearly 70 percent [68 percent] develop apps as part of their day job.”

The technology industry has always been a support industry. Despite the rise of social networking and other technologies that have become synonymous with the industry, tech has always been married with something else in order to solve specific problems. Uber grew out of a consumer demand for increased efficiency and decreased cost in the transportation space. Airbnb is a new skin of an outdated hospitality industry. There are countless examples of companies arising out of disruption to solve everyday problems. The growth of the Citizen Coder is actually just an extension of this disruption. But instead of disrupting other industries, we’re disrupting the status quo within our own.

There are a number of advantages to using this new type of developer in organizations. The current age we’re in has introduced a number of tools that allow for low-code or no-code solutions to be utilized inside different departments. Unless an organization is developing artificial intelligence, neural networks, search engines or something equally as complex, a Citizen Coder can often take advantage of market-based low/no-code solutions to increase efficiencies using technology within their department. We’re all acutely aware that technology has become a requirement in most jobs. The notion of the Citizen Coder allows individuals to engineer market-based solutions for their immediate job functions.

Citizen Coders make sense inside many business units at enterprise organizations, including (but not limited to):

Sales and business development teams

Technical marketing teams

Engineering teams where the emphasis is on problem-solving, not necessarily theoretical educational knowledge

Building hybrid teams with traditionally educated developers and citizen coders isn’t as difficult as it may seem. There are a number of ways to integrate such diverse skill sets. One of the best ways is creating an engineering team mentorship program. Placing the more experienced developers (whether they be citizen coders or not) together with the inexperienced will not only allow everyone to learn from each other, it will bind the team together to become a cohesive unit.

It’s also important to encourage communication and debates within these hybrid teams, and emphasize communication during the architecting and ideation phases of technology development. The creativity that comes from diversity of thought and conversation between hybrid teams is incredibly powerful.

One more way to build culture among hybrid teams is to explore new technologies. Every engineer at their core is a problem-solver. But in hybrid teams the varying coding methodologies and experiences often lend themselves towards exploration. However, there’s a difference between exploring new technologies and adopting new technologies. The exploration alone is an excellent team-building exercise.

The citizen coder is a new and growing phenomenon. Over the next decade, companies are going to increasingly rely on those without formal engineering education. It’s imperative that we explore different team-building methods. But the most important thing is to focus on hiring the right people so that you can solve problems and implement solutions. If you build a team of professionals, no matter their background, you will be enabled to do great work.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/citizen-coding-the-whys-and-the-howshttps://www.built.io/blog/citizen-coding-the-whys-and-the-howsTue, 28 Feb 2017 00:00:00 GMTTo say we’re huge fans of MongoDB is an understatement of the year. We recently rewrote our entire architecture to enable a pluggable environment with direct access and customization of the DB taking advantage of major updates in MongoDB 3. So you get the idea.

That said, we were beyond excited to partner with Aleksey Savateyev of MongoDB to share how to take advantage of Atlas and MongoDB features with API integration platform Built.io Flow.

Check out the original post on MongoDB here. See the integration steps below.

How To Use MongoDB Atlas And Built.io® Flow™

The following is a quick guide on how to spin up a new cluster in MongoDB Atlas and email its status with Built.io Flow. This same workflow can be used as the foundation for many other integrations, including Cisco Spark, PagerDuty, Slack, and others.

Getting Started With Built.io® Flow™

To get started with Built.io, you will need a Built.io Flow Enterprise account. If you don’t have an existing account, sign up for a free trial account here. At the end of this process, you should have constructed a flow that looks like the one below:

Starting from scratch, drag the following actions onto your blank canvas organized in a similar layout as shown above:

Create Cluster

Add Group Whitelist Entry

Create Database User

Send an Email

Connect the actions as displayed in the image above.

MongoDB Cluster Configuration In Built.io® Flow™

After connecting everything, edit the Create Cluster action. The following screen is an example of the information you’ll need to input in order to set up the Create Cluster action:

The first thing in the edit window is the Connect to MongoDB Atlas section. Choose Add New and the following screen should pop up. Input your MongoDB Atlas username and then input your API key:

Once you’ve completed adding the connection, get the Group ID from your MongoDB Atlas installation and input it in the Group ID field. Input the Instance Size, the Provider Name, and the Region Name you’d prefer for your new cluster. Be sure to examine all of the fields and their descriptions to customize your new cluster appropriately.

The second step is to enter in the appropriate information for whitelisting an IP Address (or CIDR block) to enable access to your MongoDB cluster. In this case, you’ll need to do a few things:

First, you’ll need to click on Show optional fields to display all of the options.

Second, click inside the Group ID box to grab the mouse focus.

Third, notice the Input section on the right-hand side of the edit window. Click on groupId to place the groupId from the newly formed cluster into the Group ID field here.

Last, go ahead and enter the IP Address or CIDR Block you’d like to whitelist for access to your cluster.

The third step is to create a new user for your MongoDB database:

As before, pull the Group ID information directly from the newly created cluster.

Then go through and enter all the required information.

Be careful: If you end up changing "Is Editable" to false then you will be unable to edit or delete the created user.

Be sure to record the password as you will never be able to retrieve it from the MongoDB Atlas API.

The final step is to send out a confirmation email that everything has been done. This particular action is sent from Built.io’s servers, so it does not require any authentication on your part:

Make sure to show the optional fields if you want to specify whether to send the email via HTML or plain text.

Choose the email address and subject you’d like.

In the Body section, you can click on username from the Create Database User response and name from the Create Cluster response to place both of those in the email.

Press Done.

If you have followed the steps correctly, your MongoDB Atlas workflow is now fully configured.

Testing Your Built.io® Flow™ Workflow

Now that you’re done with your MongoDB Atlas workflow, you can execute it any time you want to by pressing the Play button in the top right corner of the window.

There are some other interesting things you can do with Built.io Flow Enterprise. In this particular workflow, you may want to consider looking at the triggers by pressing the Settings icon over the Play action on the canvas. The very first trigger you’ll see available is the Webhook trigger. If you select it and press Save, you’ll set your workflow up to be triggered via a URL. You can use this URL in your scripts or anywhere else that accepts a URL for a webhook.

Another interesting trigger to explore is the PagerDuty trigger. Using a MongoDB Atlas integration with PagerDuty, you can have your Flow execute automatically every time a PagerDuty alert goes out. This can allow you to automate updating a cluster every time you get a low disk space alert from PagerDuty, for example.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/repost-how-to-use-mongodb-atlas-in-api-integration-serviceshttps://www.built.io/blog/repost-how-to-use-mongodb-atlas-in-api-integration-servicesTue, 28 Feb 2017 00:00:00 GMTBuilt.io Backend is an enterprise-grade mobile Backend-as-a-Service (mBaaS) that allows companies create applications without having to design, build, or maintain a custom backend technology stack. While most of the features and specifications of the platform are covered in detail on our documentation site, there is one particular feature that needs special attention: Uniqueness.

What Do We Mean By Uniqueness?

Uniqueness refers to validating uniqueness of values of a field. This means that if a field of a class is marked as unique, the values entered for this field while object creation should be unique. The value entered in this field should not be the same as any of the values entered for this field in any objects of the same class.

So, for instance, if the ‘first_name’ field of a class is marked as unique, no two objects of this class can have same values for ‘first_name’.

Built.io Backend performs a validation for fields marked as unique. If the value entered for the fields marked as unique is not unique, Built.io Backend will not allow you save/create the object.

Let’s quickly look at the steps to mark a field as unique:

Create a new class

Add any field to the class (e.g., Name)

Check the 'Unique' option checkbox

Note: You can, at any time, mark the field as not unique. No data is lost in this case.

Compound Uniqueness

Uniqueness can be applied on a combination of two or more fields as well. In such a case, Built.io Backend validates the uniqueness of the combined values of the fields.

So, for instance, compound uniqueness has been applied on ‘Name’ and ‘Age’ fields of a class.

In such a case, many objects of a class may have John as name and 30 years as age. But the combination of John, 30 years (‘John’ as name along with ’30 years’ as age) could be used only once.

Let’s see how this is implemented in a class.

Create a new class

Add any field to the class (e.g., Name)

Check the 'Unique' option checkbox

In the 'Unique Path' field, select the field that you wish to add to make combined uniqueness

The sub-fields that are part of a Group field can also be added to the unique path. So, if, for instance, there is an ‘Address’ field that contains ‘Street’ and ‘City’ as its sub-fields, you can add ‘address.street’ and ‘address.city’ sub-fields also to the unique path of a field that is marked as unique.

Uniqueness For Multiple Fields

Fields that are marked as ‘Multiple’ can be marked as ‘Unique’. In this case, the multiple values entered for the field should not be the same as any other object’s multiple values for this field.

However, fields marked as ‘Multiple’ cannot be part of some other field’s unique path. So, for instance, ‘phone number’ (which is a ‘Multiple’ field) can be marked as unique. However, it cannot be added to the ‘Name’ field’s unique path.

Modifying Unique Fields

It’s important to note that once you define compound uniqueness for one or more fields, modifying the schema of these fields or changing the unique path will result in data loss.

Let’s consider an example to understand this well. Let’s say you have a class called ‘Members’, with ‘name’, ‘age’, ‘gender’ and ‘profession’ as its fields. You have defined compound uniqueness for ‘name’, ‘age’ and ‘gender’ fields, i.e., you mark the ‘name’ field as unique, and add ‘age’ and ‘gender’ fields to its unique path.

After adding objects to this class, if you change the ‘name’ field as not unique, it will not result in data loss.

However, if you add a new field to the ‘name’ field’s unique path (e.g., ‘profession’) or remove a field from its unique path, the values for the ‘name’ field for all the saved objects will be lost.

It is also important to note that Built.io Backend does not allow you to modify the properties or data type of any fields added to the unique path of a field marked as unique. So, for instance, if you wish to change the datatype of ‘age’ from number to text, the system will not allow you to make this change. This is because such modifications will result in data replication, and thereby the uniqueness of data may not be maintained.

Let’s consider an example to understand why such modifications are not allowed.

Using the above example, let’s say the data of your class is as given below:

Name (Unique)

Age (Unique path of 'Name')

Gender (Unique path of 'Name')

Profession

Alex

30

M

QA

Maria

28

F

Designer

Alex

32

M

Designer

Jennifer

36

F

Senior Engineer

You wish to change the datatype of ‘Age’ from ‘number’ to ‘text’. The system does not allow such a change. But let’s consider this was possible. In such a case, the data saved under the ‘Age’ field would have been deleted. This would have resulted in the following data table:

Name (Unique)

Age (Unique path of 'Name')

Gender (Unique path of 'Name')

Profession

Alex

Undefined

M

QA

Maria

Undefined

F

Designer

Alex

Undefined

M

Designer

Jennifer

Undefined

F

Senior Engineer

Here, if you notice, there are two objects with name as Alex and gender Male. This means that despite the compound uniqueness of name, age, and gender fields, such a modification, if permitted, can create data replication.

It is therefore recommended that you do not modify the schema of any fields that are part of the unique path of any field marked as unique.

Compound Uniqueness For "Owner"

There may be times when you may want to allow unique values for a field per user. This means that each user is allowed to create objects with unique value for the specified field, and any user cannot create more than one object with same value for that field. However, different users can provide same values for this field.

In such a case, you need to mark the field as unique, and select ‘Owner’ as value in ‘Unique Path’.

So, for instance, if you mark the ‘Name’ field as unique, and add ‘Owner’ to it’s unique path, it will ensure that a users can individually add many objects, but the value entered in the ‘name’ field by any user cannot be same as the name entered in any of the earlier created objects by that user.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/working-with-uniqueness-in-built-io-backendhttps://www.built.io/blog/working-with-uniqueness-in-built-io-backendWed, 22 Feb 2017 08:00:00 GMTThe choice of content management system (CMS) has much greater importance today than it has in the past. Requirements are being driven less and less by the need to publish to a static website and more often are connected to the need to get content out quickly and to diverse end points, including mobile devices, smart watches and more. Those end points and the need for flexibility and speed are pushing organizations to headless CMS.

A headless CMS allows the organization to focus technologists on the look and feel of the content while allowing marketers to focus on the content itself. That split of skills is best managed on the creative side by the use of stacks and forms to make content creation very fast and very, very easy.

The Stack

A stack is a site or workspace within a headless CMS. Commonly, there is one stack for a single website or microsite, which performs the function of containing all of the content, assets and collaboration amongst the marketing team members.

Collaborators, whether content developers or content editors, are invited to the stack where developers have created content types that match the requirements of each particular stack.

This setup allows for separation of the presentation layer code, created by the developer, and the organization’s content that has been created by the business expert. Because a headless CMS is API-driven, a single stack can publish to multiple environments if that’s the best way, or separate stacks can publish to different environments. Whichever makes for better management, the point is that a single update of key data (like a date) can be published out to whatever home that data has.

A stack can also have a master language that allows a stack to manage localization of a Web page, content blog or mobile site. This further aligns the purpose of the content with those who create and consume it.

Power of Forms

Anyone can use a form, which is a really simple, non-threatening way to move content quickly and without barriers. A headless CMS, already more flexible than a traditional CMS, becomes even more powerful with the addition of forms, which harden the content and make the system hard to break. As an example, field limits and text validations that insulate users from mistakes are easily applied to forms. Simply put, a form is one of the most basic ways to pull data from an individual and to get that data, formatted correctly, into a system. We’ve been using forms all of our lives, and having forms within a CMS allows the front end to looks as good as a developer’s talent and the content to look as good as the marketer allows. It is a perfect separation tool that allows the system to be managed well; if it is built right, content presents well and if it is written right, content is compelling.

Stacks and forms are the tools that make a headless CMS a great choice for content management.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/stacks-and-forms-make-content-management-much-easierhttps://www.built.io/blog/stacks-and-forms-make-content-management-much-easierThu, 16 Feb 2017 00:00:00 GMTToday we’re proud to announce our new Community and the Internet of API (IoA) Awards. In a nod to our innovative culture, Built.io believes that the Community and the IoA Awards will help foster the same forward-thinking environment our own developers use on a daily basis to create our award winning tools. We can’t wait to tap into your knowledge to see what we can build together!

About The Community

The Community is for technical and semi-technical users who understand the power of automation and integration. We’ll offer the following benefits with more to come:

Supercharged accounts for our end-to-end integration suite for the first 100 users*

About The Internet of APIs (IoA) Awards

The IoA Awards will be an integration challenge co-sponsored and co-judged with featured partners. The quarterly award offers a $5,000 cash prize for the best integration submitted by a developer using Built.io Flow and is exclusively available to community members. Stay tuned for more details about our first contest!

*Promotion applies to first 100 people to complete sign up process. One promotion per person. Promotion will end the sooner of a) when the limit of the promotion is reached or b) March 31, 2017. Built.io reserves the right to refuse or cancel promotion to anyone at any time without notice.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/announcing-our-new-developer-community-and-the-internet-of-apis-awardshttps://www.built.io/blog/announcing-our-new-developer-community-and-the-internet-of-apis-awardsMon, 13 Feb 2017 00:00:00 GMTThe evolution to a digital workplace brings with it an urgent need for companies to understand what data exists and where it’s all kept. Any efforts to do this can be complicated by the sheer amount of apps and tools that an organization has implemented to keep up with the pace of work – be it enterprise-wide, at the team level, or more increasingly, by individual employees.

Every department within an organization has their own operational systems: ERPs for financial data, CRMs for customer data, HRIS for HR data, and Marketing Automation Platforms for marketing data. Then there’s the company wide intranet that’s supposed to tie it all together. But unless organizations can make these systems talk to each other, data will continue to be duplicated and people will continue to do redundant work.

A Better Way For Sales To Close Deals

The utmost goal of a sales team is to close deals fast. They have quarterly – sometimes weekly – targets to hit, so there’s no time to waste on small details. In order to do this, they need to be able to access and update information quickly, and smoothly transition from one deal to the next without too much obstruction.

As a result of this need for speed, process and organization sometimes take a back seat to execution. So, while the company is benefiting from a bulging bottom line, efficiencies and knowledge sharing are lost when the team doesn’t follow the process protocols set out by the company.

Picture this. After weeks of legwork, Steve, a sales rep for a SaaS company finally closes his million-dollar enterprise deal. To signify the deal is done (at last), Steve types up the deal details in a summary field in Salesforce.

The moment Steve presses ‘Save’, he triggers a series of workflows to prepare the business to take action on this particular deal:

A ticket is sent to the implementation services team notifying them of the pending project and bringing them up to speed on all the details collected during the sales process.

A project management task list outlining the standard steps for any new project implementation is created in Trello or Smartsheet.

A message is sent to the executive team via an SMS service like Twilio with the high-level details of the deal.

A twitter-like update is automatically posted in the Company news room as an FYI to all staff.

A new customer survey is distributed via Woofoo to secure approval to reference the company’s name and logo in marketing materials.

And the list goes on…

These are just a few examples of the workflows that Steve could trigger when closing any new deal. The result? Steve and his team can do more work, in less time, using fewer resources.

3 Reasons To Invest In A Streamlined Experience

Automating processes between API-accessible platforms is more than just an efficiency exercise. The real payoff potential is multi-pronged, and easier to measure than you might think.

Time savings: Automating recurring workflows and repetitive tasks allows fast-paced teams to spend more time on delivery and execution, and less time on recording and sharing data.

Improved communications and knowledge sharing: Connecting department-specific platforms to the company intranet where people go to do their daily work allows everyone to celebrate success and gain insights that might help them in their own role.

Optimize usage of existing tools and systems: Engagement and adoption is a barrier for any new system or platform. Companies can bypass the inevitable by making their tools and systems talk to each other instead.

Connecting Enterprise And Employee Apps

You can even take it a step further. While your first step might be connecting IT-sanctioned apps across the enterprise, there’s a growing proliferation of employee-preferred apps that are making their way into the digital workplace, too. Organizations can try to swim against the tide of the BYOA trend, or they can choose to embrace the possibilities of building a sophisticated flow of data that intersects highly-secure enterprise apps with the niche productivity apps that employees use to get work done.

In this new age of the empowered employee, when people choose how, when, and where they want to work, enterprise organizations will increasingly look for ways to stay agile and flexible when it comes to integrating their systems and tools.

In 2011 integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) was introduced to the integration scene to connect various cloud applications. Soon it evolved into a platform that could integrate both on-premises and cloud apps.

By definition, it seems that the concept of ESB is obsolete and will be completely replaced by iPaaS. This has already sparked curiosity among industry experts. Some believe this is already happening and ESB will soon be history.

Yet we see many organizations still using ESBs, with no intention of adopting iPaaS for their integration needs - at least any time soon.

It will be interesting to explore if these two technologies can co-exist or be used in parallel in today’s cloud-driven world, or whether there is space for only one of these platforms. If the latter is true, now long will it take for one to overcome the other?

The Current State Of ESBs

It is true that since the inception of SaaS applications, organizations across the board are not as dependant on on-premises software. Having said that, it would not be appropriate to say that on-premises systems are redundant or obsolete. They continue to be an integral part of any IT setup. SAP, for instance, is still pretty much in demand. And where there are on-premises apps, ESB technology remains a recommended solution for aggregated services and embedded integrations.

Moreover, ESBs have evolved with time. Many modern, light-weight ESBs are cloud-enabled, while some even talk with REST APIs.

This means some ESBs are capable of doing what iPaaS does best, along with the innate capability to communicate with on-premises apps.

The Case for iPaaS

If modern ESBs are capable of doing what iPaaS can do, they why move to iPaaS?

Cost, Resources, And Maintenance

Any on-premises app requires set up and maintenance – and this comes with a cost. Consequently, many on-premises apps that lived on the ground in the pre-cloud era are now moving to the cloud. And if the trend continue—which is very likely—there will be very little left on the ground. ERPs, which were cloud-resistant for quite a long time, too have introduced cloud-based versions.

And when it comes to integrating cloud apps, iPaaS does the job well. As far as cost is concerned, the installation and maintenance cost of iPaaS is close to nothing. The players mostly offer pay-as-you-use subscription model.

Integrating IoT

ESBs are not fully capable of integrating IoT. iPaaS, on the other hand, due to its high flexibility and availability, are best suited for handling IoT.

APIs

Next, most products these days come with APIs, which provide a structured way to engage with other products and systems. This direct interaction eliminates the need for middlewares. In this case, ESBs take the backseat.

Agility

Lastly, iPaaS enables agile integration. Since it’s an online platform, the integration layer can keep pace with changing needs, and decisions are made faster. This is possible because there is no or minimum coding involved. Moreover, it serves as a single platform for all integrations.

Deciding Between iPaaS and ESB

While it seems from the above argument that iPaaS is a natural winner, it is incorrect to conclude that iPaaS will replace ESB.

The iPaaS space is evolving, but it still needs to cope with the increasing security risks it faces while exposing legacy apps to other online services.

Besides, ESBs are gradually starting to integrate with cloud apps in one way or the other, which not many would have imagined some year ago. The modern ESB may evolve into a platform that reduces the obstacles it currently faces in terms of integration.

Both platforms serve different purposes, yet the gap between them is thinning gradually. That said, it may be too early to decide or even debate on which is best. As of now the two technologies can be complement each other and work in parallel in any organization, driving innovation and excellence in the areas that they each fit best.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/will-integration-platform-as-a-service-ipaas-replace-enterprise-serial-bus-esb-https://www.built.io/blog/will-integration-platform-as-a-service-ipaas-replace-enterprise-serial-bus-esb-Mon, 06 Feb 2017 00:00:00 GMTToday, we are happy to announce an exciting developer feature for Built.io Flow Enterprise – the 'Debug Panel'. The Debug Panel provides workflow execution details in realtime to make it easier to create, edit and work with your integrations.

Previously, you could see only the log details and errors (if any) of your workflow in the console log panel. The new panel provides you with a lot more detail about workflow execution.

The Debug Panel is located directly beneath the canvas, so it's really easy for users to understand how a workflow is progressing in realtime.

Let's take a closer look at this new feature:

The Debug Panel consists of two main sections: Action and Logs.

The 'Action' section contains the list of all actions of your current workflow along with their execution status, execution time, and execution timeline. When you click on an action name, you can see the input and output for that particular action.

The 'Logs' section includes the console logs and error details (if any) for the current workflow.

Apart from this, the Debug Panel also displays total duration for workflow execution, the last date and time when a workflow was executed, total credits used, and the container size.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/built-io-flow-enterprise-introducing-the-debug-panel-for-workflow-execution-details-at-a-glancehttps://www.built.io/blog/built-io-flow-enterprise-introducing-the-debug-panel-for-workflow-execution-details-at-a-glanceMon, 06 Feb 2017 00:00:00 GMTWhen someone first discovers the power of drag-and-drop integration, the reaction is usually something like this: WOW, that’s amazing! There are so many things I could do. SOOO, where’s the best place to start? What are other people using this for?

To help inspire and get you started, we have curated a handy list of popular things our users do with Built.io Flow.

Salesforce to MarketoSharing is caring! Make sure your data is always in sync and that updates to one system are immediately communicated to the other.

Cisco Spark to GiphyDon’t get left out of your next office gif battle. Use Cisco Spark to pull the freshest gifs from Giphy and show your coworkers how to gif.

ServiceNow to SlackReceive maintenance status and service information in real time right inside your favorite collaboration tool. Filter out irrelevant or routine messages and broadcast critical alerts to all appropriate channels.

Google Sheets to LobEveryone loves postcards but nobody has time to write them anymore. Lob to the rescue! Take your database of contacts and automatically send your favorite people cool postcards.

Want to connect more than two services? Built.io Flow Enterprise is designed to handle as many steps and services as you can think of, because sometimes, the world isn’t as simple as “If this then that”.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/favorite-services-coupled-togetherhttps://www.built.io/blog/favorite-services-coupled-togetherFri, 03 Feb 2017 00:00:00 GMTTemplates are an easy way to jumpstart building workflows. Here’s a curated list of our favorites and some helpful tips to get you started making your own.

Sales Productivity

Pulling info out of your CRM and into a collaboration tool like Spark is great for ease of use, finding information faster, and productivity, since logging in to various web apps can take time

Project Management

Trello is designed to give you a quick snapshot of what’s happening right now, while Smartsheet keeps a log of everything you are working on, have worked on, and will be working on. Whether you’re managing engineering sprints or running a conference, connecting these systems is a PM’s dream.

Software Development

Having the right people for a job is as important as letting them know that they are part of the job. Connect Pivotal Tracker to Cisco Spark so that every time a new project is created, the right people are notified.

Event Marketing

Almost every event has multiple managers and stakeholders that need access to attendee information. Instead of giving all of these people access to your Eventbrite account, share a Google Sheet with them that is kept updated in realtime.

Financial Planning

Having the latest sales data at your fingertips is key to tracking revenue targets and setting budgets. Ask your personal assistant bot, Alexa, to provide you with the latest pipeline information from Pipedrive and get it delivered on-demand in your next forecasting meeting.

Marketing Operations

Tracking marketing stats in Google Sheets is an everyday task for many companies. Now you can access and share key information about your latest campaign with key stakeholders and automatically provide reports across teams in Cisco Spark.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/6-popular-time-saving-templateshttps://www.built.io/blog/6-popular-time-saving-templatesWed, 01 Feb 2017 00:00:00 GMTSelenium is one of the most common and useful automation tools for QA engineers. Selenium released Selenium 2.0 in 2011, along with new WebDriver APIs that provided native browser automation support. Recently it launched Selenium 3.0, with quite a few changes in its API.

When the 3.0 changes were being shipped by Selenium, Mozilla also made changes to its Firefox browser to make it more secure and stable. Consequently, the community-offered driver became obsolete.

Now in order to launch Firefox with Selenium 3, you will need GeckoDriver. In this blog post we’ll share how to do this properly.

About GeckoDriver

Gecko is the proprietary web browser engine developed by Mozilla. GeckoDriver is a proxy which is used to run Selenium 3 tests in Firefox.

GeckoDriver is compatible with all versions of Mozilla Firefox, unlike Selenium 2. This essentially means that Mozilla will have to introduce a new version (or update) of GeckoDriver with every new release of Firefox.

How To Run Tests In Firefox Using GeckoDriver

Let’s look at how to use this driver to run tests in Firefox. Before you start, make sure you have the following in place:

Prerequisites

Selenium 3

Mozilla's GeckoDriver

Java

Note: If you're using Selenium 2, you do not need to set the system property. If you are using Selenium 3, you will need to specify the system property, which is also the case for Chrome and IE browsers.

When you run this code, the title will be printed, if you can see it in the console then Selenium 3 is running correctly and you can start testing.

Like what you read? Join our community to get more technical information, chances to win prizes, and more: built.io/community

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/using-geckodriver-to-launch-firefox-in-selenium-3https://www.built.io/blog/using-geckodriver-to-launch-firefox-in-selenium-3Mon, 30 Jan 2017 00:00:00 GMTOur friends at Cisco Spark celebrated the launch of the highly anticipated Spark Board while simultaneously announcing an expansion of its partnership with us for their community of integrators.

Cisco Spark + Built.io® Flow™: Better Together

Built.io Flow is an end-to-end integration suite that serves both technical teams and non-technical citizen integrators. It enables anyone to quickly and easily connect products, services, and devices to automate workflows in minutes using a drag and drop interface. Cisco Spark is a collaboration tool that helps teams work together better. By integrating with other tools and services, Cisco Spark and Built.io Flow help teams streamline processes, collaborate better, and gather data from multiple sources in one place.

Here are just a few use cases that stand to benefit from this great combination:

Build flashy demos or POCs that instantly connect Cisco Spark to any 3rd party cloud service, including Salesforce, Pagerduty or Google Sheets.

Build bots that make Cisco Spark your hub to automate processes across business systems.

Connect the digital and physical world and enable IoT use cases with Cisco Spark as your central dashboard.

Unleash the full power and versatility of Cisco Spark and accelerate your sales cycle.

About The Exclusive Offer To Cisco Spark Partners

For a limited time, get a 6-month sponsored subscription to Built.io Flow. Offer only valid for the first 1,000 Cisco ecosystems partners who sign up.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/announcing-the-built-io-flow-and-cisco-spark-partnershiphttps://www.built.io/blog/announcing-the-built-io-flow-and-cisco-spark-partnershipMon, 30 Jan 2017 00:00:00 GMTBuilt.io will be back in full effect for one of our favorite conferences, DeveloperWeek!

To join us at the event for FREE, use the code DW17-OPEN and click here. Below is a quick list of what we’re up to while we’re at the show:

Talks

Don’t miss Kurt Collin’s talk ‘A.I. Is My Co-Pilot: The Coming Obsolescence of the Chief Analytics Officer’. Kurt’s presentations always come with a twist – in his last stage performance, he ditched Powerpoint altogether and co-presented with a voice-controlled bot. This time, he hasn’t even told our CEO what he’s got up his sleeve… catch him live here:

2-2:50 PM on Monday, Feb 13 at Pier 27 on the Embarcadero in San Francisco.

Booth

Be sure to swing by our booth (#B219) to meet our team, ask questions and get hands-on demos. We look forward to seeing you during the official expo dates and times:

9-6PM on Tuesday, February 14 at Pier 27 on the Embarcadero in San Francisco.

9-5PM on Wednesday, February 15 at Pier 27 on the Embarcadero in San Francisco.

Bots

Built.io is proud to bring you the official DeveloperWeek Concierge Bot. Powered by our platform and portraying the sass you’d expect from DeveloperWeek, it is designed to help you navigate the event. Look for the Amazon Alexa throughout the event and ask it about the sessions schedule, booth placement, or parties. If you want to know how you can build your own bot, we can show you in less than 3 minutes at the Built.io booth (#B219).

A VERY Special Announcement

We can’t share yet, but we’ll be dropping a huge announcement while we’re there. Be sure to swing by the booth or find Kurt on site to learn more.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/going-big-at-developerweek-2017https://www.built.io/blog/going-big-at-developerweek-2017Wed, 25 Jan 2017 18:30:00 GMTAt Built.io, we understand that data security is of the utmost importance. We believe that strong security mechanisms enhance data security, prevent accounts from being hacked, and allow only authorized users to access important data.

Keeping this in mind, we have introduced several security enhancements for Built.io Flow Express. Below are the highlights.

Introducing Two-Factor Authentication

Two-factor authentication (2FA) is a way of verifying a user’s identity by using a combination of two different verification methods. In Built.io Flow Express, the first factor is the usual sign-in via email address and password. The second factor is code verification received on the registered mobile either via SMS or through an Authy app. This ensures that your account data remains secure even if your account password has been compromised. Learn how to enable 2FA for your account.

Limited Login Attempts

We have put a limit to the number of failed login attempts a user can make. After six consecutive invalid login attempts, your account will be locked out. If this happens, you need to contact our support team at support-flowexpress@built.io for further assistance. Please note that you active flows will not be affected if your account has been locked.

Password Change History

Built.io Flow Express has started maintaining your password history. Consequently, if you change or create a new password hereafter, it cannot be the same as any of your previous five passwords.

ReCAPTCHA Integration

We have integrated reCAPTCHA into our system. Now each time you reset your password via the ‘Forgot password’ link or request to resend activation email, you will be asked to solve a reCAPTCHA. This ensures that the user trying to login is a human, and not a bot.

While these features do not completely eliminate all potential threats, it makes a lot harder for attackers to break in your account. If you have more suggestions on security, kindly write to us on support-flowexpress@built.io.

At Built.io, we strive to provide great products and a continuously improving user experience to our customers. In the process, we occasionally replace obsolete features or older capabilities with newer and better ones. With that said, we have an update to Built.io Backend!

Update To The Group Field In Built.io Backend

Built.io Backend is deprecating the ‘Multiple’ option for the ‘Group’ field.

Beginning Monday, February 6, 2017, Built.io Backend will no longer allow enabling the ‘Multiple’ option for any new ‘Group’ field added to the schema of any class of your application.

Existing ‘Group’ fields of your application with the ‘Multiple’ option enabled will remain unaffected after this implementation, so this change will allow existing applications to function unaltered. However, if you disable ‘Multiple’ for any such existing ‘Group’ field, you will not be allowed to re-enable ‘Multiple’.

Why We’re Making The Change

Put simply, it will improve the performance of your application.

While there is nothing inherently wrong with using ‘Multiple’ for ‘Group’ fields, using this liberally (and improperly) increases the size of the object data (and thereby of the class data). This in turn can make data retrieval and modification difficult. We’ve noticed an upward trend of such problematic implementions, so we’re aiming to provide users with a better, more consistent solution.

Here’s an example of how using the ‘Multiple’ option for the ‘Group’ field may affect your application:

Let’s say you have built a shopping app using Built.io Backend. It has a ‘Users’ class, which, apart from containing the common ‘Name’ and ‘Email’ fields, also contains a ‘Wish list’ field (a ‘Group’ field marked as ‘Multiple’) that stores the details (name, description, category, etc.) of all the products that a user adds to the wish list.

A user may add thousands of products to the wish list, making this single object extremely heavy. Imagine hundreds of users of your application doing this. Subsequently, when you try to fetch all users, the app has to fetch loads of data, thereby increasing the latency dramatically.

Moreover, if anything in the wish list is deleted or modified, the system has to sift through all of the products that were added, and then modify only what was changed. Put simply, this affects the performance of your application.

Is There A Workaround?

Certainly. Instead of dumping additional info in a single class, it is always best to create more classes, and provide inter-referencing.

In using the above example, the e-commerce app’s ‘Users’ class should store the name, email, and other details of the user. Products added to wish list should go under a different class (‘Wish list Products’). The ‘Wish list Products’ class should contain a ‘User ID’ field (reference field referring to the objects of the ‘Users’ class) and a ‘Product ID’ field (reference field that refers to the objects of the ‘Products’ class).

This change will fetch data in the application faster, and it won’t experience any unexpected latency.

What Happens After The ‘Multiple’ Option For The ‘Group’ Field Is Removed?

The ‘Multiple’ option for the ‘Group’ field will be removed on February 6, 2017. Here’s how it will work for various users:

For existing Group fields with Multiple enabled

If you have an application that already has Group fields with ‘Multiple’ option enabled, your application will continue to function that way it used to be. However, if you edit the class schema and disable ‘Multiple’ for any ‘Group’ field, you will not be able to re-enable it.

The addition of new fields will still be permitted, but they will not be marked as unique.

For new Group fields
If you create a new Group field, you will no longer see the ‘Multiple’ option. In this case, we recommend to use additional classes and references, as explained earlier in the example.

Need Help?

We expect this change to have minimal impact on existing users and result in better, more consistent performance for you next app. However, we’re here in case you have any questions or if you require additional help or assistance. We always love to hear from you and you can reach us at support-backend@built.io.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/builtio-backend-update-moving-on-from-multiple-group-fields-for-better-performancehttps://www.built.io/blog/builtio-backend-update-moving-on-from-multiple-group-fields-for-better-performanceWed, 25 Jan 2017 00:00:00 GMTTechnology is evolving rapidly, and so are the needs of the enterprise. However, the increasing adoption of SaaS, PaaS, and cloud applications—coupled with big data, mobile, and IoT—has added to the integration woes of companies. Data is no longer being stored centrally; it’s scattered and distributed across multiple apps, databases, and data centers.

The biggest challenge companies face today is integrating the data that is coming in and out of various web-based and on-premise apps.

This is where iPaaS comes in.

What is an Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS)?

In layman’s terms, iPaaS or (integration platform as a service) is a platform that allows users to connect various cloud and on-premise apps and then deploy these integrations without writing any code or installing additional software or hardware.

The real value is in the functionality it offers. Any user can use an iPaaS to move data from any database or application to another app, automatically. For instance, an iPaaS workflow can automatically create leads in Salesforce from every incoming query, respond to the potential customer by Gmail, and create a task in Trello that assigns the lead to the sales manager.

This allows enterprises to automate complex business processes that span across web-based apps and on-premise resources.

Advantages of iPaaS

While the core advantage of iPaaS—integrating your apps—remains the most prominent, there are several other benefits of using such a platform.

Cloud-based Integrations: Modern iPaaS solutions are cloud-friendly and more secure. Integrations between cloud applications happen in the cloud, thereby eliminating the risk of exposing a local network and data to the internet.

Cost-efficiency: iPaaS eliminates the need to hire expensive developers to write custom integrations. The required platform is available as monthly/yearly subscriptions, and is mostly in the cloud. No hardware or software installations are required to integrate applications.

Agility: iPaaS offers speed and flexibility which enables greater business agility. Required integrations can be created, edited, and disposed of when needed, without worrying about additional costs or provider permissions.

Updates Over Upgrades: iPaaS provides reliable, automatic, and regular updates that reduce the cost of maintenance, improve reliability, and ensure that you make use of the latest features and enhancements as they become available. This becomes critical when merging with SaaS applications that provide updates to their API and security protocols regularly. A good iPaaS will update actions and activities on a bi-weekly basis so that a user doesn’t have to worry about keeping up with updates.

Speed and Simplicity: iPaaS enables you to connect and automate workflows for your business quickly and easily, whether you are connecting to new cloud solutions,to existing core on-prem systems, or starting up a zero-footprint enterprise.

Built.io offers end-to-end integration solutions for businesses. Built.io Flow Express is a lightweight integration tool for non-technical and semi-technical business users or “citizen integrators” while Built.io Flow Enterprise is an enterprise-grade, robust technical integration product for power users and developers.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/an-introduction-to-ipaashttps://www.built.io/blog/an-introduction-to-ipaasFri, 20 Jan 2017 00:00:00 GMTIn our previous blog post , we made predictions about the future of Headless CMS and the impact of cloud-first content management system. While the future of a decoupled CMS looks bright, there are many benefits to it today.

We see great potential for headless CMS and a greater opportunity for business and technical groups to become more agile, increase ROI and gain a competitive edge over their competitors with a flexible, CMS cloud platform.

Headless CMS Empowers Departments To Focus On What They’re Good At

Headless CMS decreases the need for teams to manage and "acquiesce" their projects by the limits of their CMS and frees up time and restrictions for businesses to focus more on the business, rather than the technology.

Too often, we consider a platform as the sole answer to a business problem when in reality, a platform is only as good as the people who work within it; those that touch the platform have an outsized effect on a successful outcome or a disappointment. The platform can make life easier or it can slow everything down to a crawl, depending on how comfortable people are and how quickly they adopt it.

If it takes longer to bring resources up to speed, there are four key negative effects:

Implementation delay

Longer time to value

Errors

Resistance to change

A headless CMS mitigates each of these common predicaments by first allowing for a separation of skills so that everyone involved is working within their area of expertise. This means developers develop and marketers market.

Key takeaway: The people are a critical part of the productivity of your CMS.

Headless CMS Helps Attract And Retain Talent

This is why an even bigger problem is solved with recruiting and retaining the best development talent. Competitive programmers are happiest when working with the latest technology rather than being stuck using “old tech.” There is significant personal satisfaction that comes with being conversant in cutting edge ways of solving technical problems. Being up to speed on the latest is valued as a smart way to manage a technical career.

This provides big benefits to the organization as well as the individual. The freedom of choice that a headless CMS provides is an excellent way to help with the continual struggle with recruiting and retaining the best employees. An organization should never lose sight of the fact that every time you force a developer away from their favorite tools, they lose comfort and this affects productivity. What’s worse, discomfort and low productivity take away a measure of the joy of work, which has a big effect on employee morale. Everyone wants to work in the organizations that pay attention to the personal and career needs of their people.

Key takeaway: A headless CMS makes it easier to find and retain the best developers.

Headless CMS Encourages Creativity In Your App

Ultimately, a headless CMS brings people freedom in their work. With freedom comes a level of satisfaction and creativity that drives an organization to higher levels of performance in the market. With so much change happening in how content is created and consumed in a digital world, a platform that greatly improves the working environment is sure to have a significant impact on productivity and competitiveness.

With the time and resources saved from using a headless CMS, a developer using a can focus on thinking ahead, tackling bigger issues, being proactive and creative with problem solving, so they can bring in great ideas like the following:

workflow automation

bots or digital assistants

VR or AR

interactive in-store displays

wearables or IoT

The Bottom Line Of Employee Productivity Is That It Ultimately Makes Your Business More Competitive

Headless CMS's flexibility opens up a breadth of endless possibilities and allows users, teams, and businesses to hone in on what they can do as opposed to what they can't do.

A headless CMS enables a business to quickly adapt to a frenetic, API-led world of expanding devices and content destinations. By increasing productivity and ingenuity within an organization, you also increase agility and shorten time-to-market for creative ideas.

The headless CMS platform has been rapidly trending upward for its leap forward in allowing an organization to quickly adapt to a frenetic, API-led world of expanding devices and content destinations. Pace and pressure will only get worse.

The need to quickly adapt means a change away from the traditional CMS model. The agility and flexibility brought by a headless CMS move the biggest focus away from the technology platform and toward the marketing and development teams like never before. This is a great focus to have, as that’s where the best organizational differentiator is found: Productivity. While a headless CMS breaks through significant technology barriers, it also meets the ongoing challenge of human productivity, which is a key to survival as everything goes digital. Ultimately, human productivity translates directly to agility and flexibility. As much as we automate our world, the people that are necessary to run the machines remain as the biggest differentiator of success.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/using-headless-cms-to-increase-the-productivity-of-your-teamhttps://www.built.io/blog/using-headless-cms-to-increase-the-productivity-of-your-teamThu, 12 Jan 2017 00:00:00 GMTI’ve been asked by my customers and many others in the industry to predict how headless CMS one-ups itself in 2017. 2016 was an excellent year for headless CMS, with strong growth and plenty of attention from Forrester and other analysts, including Gartner. The verdict is in: Many are making the shift. Those who aren’t already making the move to a platform that takes advantage of the overall trend of flexible, content-as-a-service through microservices and APIs, should be working to get buy-in for such a move.

The market is realizing that traditional CMS is limited, time consuming and dissatisfying for the Marketer and the larger organization as well. With these thoughts in mind, here are my predictions for headless CMS in 2017:

Headless CMS Will Drive Marketing Beyond The Web

My first prediction has already been made in App Developer Magazine, where Built.io was asked to weigh in on Blockchain, IoT, chatbots and connected finance. I provided the following,

“Content marketing will need to diversify beyond just responsive web marketing to support native apps and IoT devices. Going headless. Responsive web has now become the norm in 2016. No one is doing desktop-only websites anymore, we are now in a world where design agencies just assume a mobile-first approach.

With the rise of IoT, many other devices have screens that need to show content too (VR headsets, smart watches, and so in 2017 we are going to the switch to the headless CMS model as the clear front runner for Content Marketing teams. A centralized platform with a decoupled front end and API delivery of content will future-proof any business looking to expand their content portfolio to the masses. As we see the market moving towards micro services and integrating everything via APIs, having a singular content platform to manage everything across the board just makes sense.”

So many of today’s tech breakthroughs are dependent on flexible systems that can consume change and allow companies to capitalize on new ways of doing business. There’s no reason a CMS has to be a millstone.

Headless CMS Will Drive Platform Freedom (Finally)

A Lot of technologies have promised to open up choices for users, but few have delivered on this promise. The challenge has been that every system developer makes choices that lead down a path to proprietary tools. In the case of traditional CMS, those choices lock users into messy plugins and a headache of custom code. Taking advantage of integrated services involves too much vendor lock in and requires marketers to make risky bets. Headless CMS defeats this problem by eliminating the connection between those who create content and those responsible for its integration and presentation on any and all devices.

2017 will see the further growth for the new freedoms that headless CMS brings. The technology itself grows, but so do the myriad of platform choices available for connection, and payment services for e-commerce are a great example. Each day brings more competitive pricing on transactions and a chance to get a better interface for the customer. No one wants to wait for a plugin or recoding when they can keep their content intact, connect to a new microservice and take advantage of better pricing or functionality immediately. With an increasing number of players in just about every service available, there will always be something cheaper, better and more powerful.

Platform freedom will be a big driver of headless CMS in the coming year.

Headless CMS Performance Will Increase

The demands of IoT, mobile-first and far more ways to display content puts an unbearable load on a traditional content management in 2017, but will push headless CMS to higher performance levels. The natural divide of content and technology responsibilities inherent in a headless CMS allows the API and microservices focus to shine, enabling technologists to use the latest and greatest tools and techniques available—without limits. This allows the platform to be optimized for performance regardless of the boundaries being crossed (devices, distances, timing, volume, synchronization, integration aspects).

Headless CMS Will Support Rise Of AI

As artificial intelligence, robotics and automation explode, constraints will be the enemy in 2017. Combined with analytics, marketers will be automating decisions on what content ends up where and with what expectation. Consider individual preferences, seasonality or something as simple and unpredictable as the highlights and results of a sporting event. Marketers want to be able to maximize a moment by knowing what to expect and then waiting for the right conditions to present themselves. Content flows to a myriad of destinations, based on flexible logic and integration without being bogged down by the process and technology limitations of a traditional CMS. AI is really interesting because it sets the stage for whole new levels of automation and opportunism for marketers. The traditional CMS begins to look like a telephone with a long cord, hanging on the kitchen wall.

The overall tone of 2017 will be of maturation of both the market for headless CMS and the platform itself. We will see more integration with microservices that will satisfy the strong need to pull data together, stronger workflows, and plenty of innovation led by the myriad of use cases that headless CMS solves that simply haven’t been applied yet. These are and will continue to be great times for headless CMS.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/predictions-what-will-shift-in-2017-for-headless-cmshttps://www.built.io/blog/predictions-what-will-shift-in-2017-for-headless-cmsMon, 09 Jan 2017 00:00:00 GMTOur “Paint for a Cause” mission was inspired by social worker and cartoonist Gayatree Joshi, who travels across India influencing social issues through her playful but powerful street art.

Core to these issues is a national “Swachh Bharat” campaign to clean up India. I find this cause to be both literal and figurative ranging from teaching people to use trash bins to dispose of waste through controversial anti-corruption movements such as the recent demonetization of Indian currency.

The walls outside the Built.io campus in Virar, India displays Gayatree’s most recent work. Collaborating with employees from Built.io and local schoolchildren, Gayatree and her team of volunteers took on the project of creating twelve panels of wall art with messages promoting causes like education for girls, “go green” initiatives, messages of anti-corruption and a feature of Gayatree’s signature “Jaduman” or “sweeper,” the unsung hero who angrily but wholeheartedly bears the burden of incessantly cleaning up after those who neglect to care for their nation’s public spaces.

Gayatree’s use of talent to influence social causes while dedicating the majority of her earnings to philanthropy serves as an inspiration to so many. We are proud to have worked with such a talented individual to show our support for a stronger and more socially aware community.

What an incredible way to end the year as we enter 2017 with the audacity of hope, social awareness and a commitment to stand up for causes of importance to our community.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/welcoming-jaduman-to-the-built-io-team-through-the-paint-for-a-cause-initiativehttps://www.built.io/blog/welcoming-jaduman-to-the-built-io-team-through-the-paint-for-a-cause-initiativeThu, 05 Jan 2017 00:00:00 GMT® Flow™]]>Achievement unlocked: I built a voice activated party bot using Amazon Alexa, LIFX smart light bulbs, and Dropbox to play music. The ultimate tool in your nerd belt, this bot is sure to make you the most popular guy or gal in the room this NYE (or anytime, really).

What You Need

Part 1: Song Selection

To get your Echo or Dot to play music you will need to upload your songs to a cloud storage service. I used Dropbox because it links directly to the file (the URL contains .mp3). Once you have uploaded your song(s),

Click share

Make sure the permissions are set so that “anyone with the link can view this file”.

Copy the link and change the end of the URL so it reads “.mp3?dl=1” instead of “.mp3?dl=0”.

Part 2: Build Your Workflow

There are two approaches to building this party bot; one that is simpler and one that is more flexible and allows you to customize the “party”.

Built.io Flow Express Workflow

This workflow is allows you to control the lights and play the same song each time the party bot is triggered. All you have to do here drop in the URL to your song file.

For the Configuration, select HTTPS > North America and drop in the webhook URL from your workflow here.

The next section, SSL Certificate, choose the second option “My development endpoint is a sub-domain of a domain that has a wildcard certificate from a certificate authority”.

The Alexa set up is done! Now you can test it out by entering “Alexa tell [assistant name] it’s party time”. If everything is working you will see some code under the Service Response section.

Part 3: DANCE PARTY

Leave us a video of your party bot in the comments.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/how-to-build-a-party-bot-with-alexa-lifx-and-built-io-flowhttps://www.built.io/blog/how-to-build-a-party-bot-with-alexa-lifx-and-built-io-flowThu, 29 Dec 2016 18:30:00 GMTUnit testing pushes developers to test individual unit of code and find bugs. With unit testing in place, developers can refactor or add a new feature at any time without the fear of breaking their existing code. With proper unit testing in place and continuous testing, developers can build robust software components without slowing down.

Benefits of Unit Testing

Find Software Bugs Early

Unit testing helps developers find bugs early in the development cycle. This includes implementation issues and flaws or missing specifications for the unit.

Smoother Changes

Unit tests ensure that the code still functions properly as the code base changes with code refactoring and expansion.

Simplifies Integration

Unit testing verifies the accuracy of the each unit. By testing parts of the application before integrating them into an application, the testing process for the application is simplified and faster because the individual units have already been verified.

Design

When software is developed using a test-driven approach, the combination of writing the unit test and the refactoring activities performed after successful testing can replace formal design. This optimizes the design phase by identifying all the use cases for the functionality instead of designing the functionality and then designing the test cases for each functionality.

Tape

There are many libraries and modules available for unit testing in Node.js; today we will use Tape.

Tape is a simple TAP (Test Anything Protocol) producing library for Node and browsers. The TAP is a simple text-based interface between testing modules and a test harness. It is a simple way to list your test results.

Getting started

Installation

npm install tape --save-dev

First, we need to install Tape in our Node.js application under dev-dependencies (it will only be required in the development environment).

Start developing your test cases by requiring Tape in each file, then move them into a single file and finally, execute them using Tape.

Reporting

Tape also provides the result of unit tests in a readable format in the console. For reporting, there are a number of libraries available in the npm.

To use theses libraries, try the following:

node test/index.js | tap-spec // type the module name from npm for reporting

You can also customize the reporting by creating your own reporter. Find more details here.

Object Stream Reporter

You can create your own custom test reporter using this createStream() API. By default, the stream will be a text stream of the TAP output, but you can get an object stream instead by setting opts.objectMode to true.

I hope I’ve inspired you to use Tape to perform unit testing on your application. It’s simple to use and extremely useful when it comes to ensuring your app is error-free.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/node-js-unit-testing-with-tapehttps://www.built.io/blog/node-js-unit-testing-with-tapeWed, 21 Dec 2016 00:00:00 GMTThis year at APIDays in Paris I joined 1000+ developers, architects, and innovation managers to talk about the API and microservices economy. I gave two talks, but before I get to those I wanted to touch on some of the interesting things I saw there.

Key Takeaways From APIDays Paris

Shippo

One of the most useful tools I learned about was Shippo, which is a logistics and shipping API that makes shipping cheap and easy for e-commerce stores. I enjoyed VP of Engineering Sin-Mei Tsai’s talk, the Benefits of Logistics.

The biggest insight I walked away with is that one of the hardest things to do is get certified to print labels, which is to say the US post office (and other shipping vendors) isn’t really set up to effectively address the needs of small businesses. So even if you’re not using Shippo (or similar APIs) for the technology aspect, utilizing it to streamline the legal certifications alone is worth it. Beyond that, Shippo unifies every headache-y part of implementing shipping APIs into your product and it was fascinating to hear them solve those problems.

A Social Robot

Among the most technophilic and interesting things I saw was a ‘Social Robot’ named Pepper (@PepperTheRobot), which is essentially a programmable robot powered by REST APIs and SDKs. It uses machine vision, machine learning, and sophisticated hardware to look at, recognize, and distinguish faces. It speaks and understands natural language, and if you’re talking to it, it will look at you and track your movement. It’s completely programmable, which means it can easily run workflows from Built.io Flow.

Current marketplace use cases for Pepper are live at the equivalent of Best Buy in France, where they’ve deployed a couple of them in-store to perform demos that use connected light bulbs to engage consumers. While that’s fun, I immediately think of workplace scenarios where these robots could really shine.

Connected Hospitality

Pepper would be perfect in a hotel setting as a concierge, the ultimate addendum to our connected hospitality experience we put together at API World / Integrate. Imagine it walking you to your room and serving you your drink of choice. Yes, please.

Digital Enterprise

Imagine giving Alexa a body. You could promote your RL personal assistant and get them to handle financials and instead have the Social Robot answer doors, get mail, and serve lunch. Or more likely, it could sit in on meetings, set up calendar invites and spit out analytics and metrics.

A Brief Recap of my Talks

AI is my CoPilot

We as an industry spend a lot of money on integration. Just this past week alone there were 43,600+ jobs available on Indeed for an integration engineer. Close to 38,000 of those have a minimum salary of $75,000, which means we’re at a combined salary of about 2.8 billion dollars - And that’s just for jobs that are posted on Indeed. This does not include the cost of productivity and technology required to build and manage integrations.

If we as an industry started to add AI to the way that we build and manage integrations, we might be able to save ourselves a ton of money in the long term. Imagine talking to a computer and saying, “I need you to integrate Salesforce, Email, and Cisco Spark to set up live reporting.” What could you do with all the time saved?

How Tesla Could Bring About The Downfall Of Civilization

In 2014, there were approximately 1.2 billion cars on the road in the world. The potential for all of those cars to be threat vectors for hackers to infiltrate is pretty big and potentially devastating.

Remember the DNS hack a few months back? It occurred because 150,000 Internet-connected closed-circuit televisions were compromised to create a bot net. Then they were used in the largest Distributed Denial Of Service (DDOS) attack in history. The attack took down Twitter, Spotify, Box, Github, PayPal, Airbnb, and Pinterest (to name a few). For a little while, in a way, the world seemed to stop spinning. If that happened with just 150,000 CCTVs, think about what could happen if you take the 1.2 billion cars on the road that are largely unprotected? That’s a much bigger bot net that could contribute to a lot more harm.

See my slides here for more info and my thoughts on what we can do to prevent the end of civilization.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/key-takeaways-from-api-days-2016https://www.built.io/blog/key-takeaways-from-api-days-2016Tue, 20 Dec 2016 00:00:00 GMTAs I work with content managers day in and day out, I see a clear trend: Despite the fact that we hear constantly about the shift to omnichannel, the vast majority of use cases for content management continue to be focused on mobile apps. It’s the “here and now” problem that everyone is talking about. With that in mind, here are some of my best practices for approaching content management on mobile apps.

Best Practices For CMS On Mobile Apps

A CMS Needs An SDK: Integrating Built.io Contentstack With A Mobile App Decouples Development And Content

First and foremost, a CMS has to have an SDK (software development kit) specific to mobile apps. Mobile apps have very different needs, as I’ll cover shortly, and those needs have to be met with the right tools and processes. With our headless CMS, once the connection is made between Content Stack and a mobile app, developers are able to throw in dummy data and placeholder content. This allows technical development to keep moving and for earlier submission to the app store. The sooner an app is in the queue for app store approval, the sooner it can come out the other side.

Add A CMS To Your Mobile App For Agility: Modify Content Without Having To Resubmit

While an app is in approval by the app store, content editors can begin to create and publish new, non-placeholder content. In this way, adding a CMS layer to a mobile app offers significantly more agility in the marketplace. Once live with the app, there’s no longer a need to do a build/release/app store approval cycle with every change of content. This best practice allows the organization to easily meet the constantly changing goals of marketing without heroic effort each and every time.

Build Content Blocks In Categories

But it doesn’t stop with this practice. Having the CMS hooked directly to the mobile app allows marketers to build content blocks within the app that have the ability to reference content in specific categories. For example, a menswear block has all of the various content related to the that category already baked in before content is known. From that point, news reference and related categories are built out as content arrives. Doing this through the CMS saves effort and especially keeps content flowing smoothly.

These best practices are no small thing. Without taking the approach, even text changes to a mobile app have to go through a development team. This adds rounds of approvals and additional UAT before ending up as a new build. Keep in mind that every new build requires an app store review.

Before you think mobile apps are all you need to worry about, omnichannel is inevitable. Its slow start has probably lulled many content owners into a belief there’s still plenty of time to get started. In fact, the IoT is coming much faster now, and the early talk of connected toasters has morphed into actual products like the connected refrigerator, smart watch applications and a myriad of push notifications. Nest, Wink, Apple HomeKit and a host of other platforms are pushing the boundaries of how, where and why content gets generated and consumed. The diversity of content sources and destinations goes well beyond mobile and it isn’t around the corner. It’s here.

The Most Flexible Integration Platform, Ever

Through the unique combination of Built.io® Flow Express™ and Built.io® Flow Enterprise™, Built.io addresses the widest possible audience of integration users, spanning no-code business users, citizen integrators, technical power users, IT admins and developers. By adding an on-prem solution to Built.io Flow Enterprise, we now offer a wide architectural range including the option to retain end-to-end control over the entire integration environment.

By default, Built.io Flow operates 100% in the cloud – nothing to install locally, nothing to maintain. For hybrid integration architectures, an Enterprise Gateway allows to securely connect cloud-based systems to on-premises systems. With new Built.io Flow On-Prem, customers now have the additional option of a 100% on-premises architecture.

Free DevOps Services To Get You Up And Running

In order to operate and manage Built.io Flow On-Prem, we’re offering complementary DevOps services to scale and continuously optimize your environment, effectively delivering the convenience of a fully-managed integration stack within the security perimeter of a private cloud or customer datacenter.

This solution is perfect for industries such as finance, healthcare, telecom or government and certain geographies such as the EU, who need to to meet extensive regulatory and security mandates with the ability to enforce strict rules about how and where data is stored and accessed.

The Built.io Flow On-Prem product and services offerings will become generally available in Q1 2017. Learn more about Built.io Flow Enterprise at www.built.io/flow. To learn more about Built.io Flow On-Prem, Contact us.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/on-premises-deployment-and-devops-services-for-built-io-flowhttps://www.built.io/blog/on-premises-deployment-and-devops-services-for-built-io-flowMon, 19 Dec 2016 00:00:00 GMTHere’s a quick “how to” set up an integration between Cisco Tropo and Cisco Spark using Built.io Flow Enterprise. The following tutorial will show you how to automatically forward an incoming SMS from Cisco Tropo to Cisco Spark using a Spark Bot.

Assumptions

Before we get started, we've prepared a checklist of tools you need and the technical familiarity you should have in order to properly create this integration.

Setting Up Your Cisco Tropo Application

Choose a name for your new application (any name will do as long as it’s unique).

Copy the Webhook URL from the workflow you created. You can get that URL from the settings in the Play activity.

Back in Cisco Tropo, set the Type of Application to Web (HTTP) API, and in the following text box, paste the Webhook URL.

Finally, make sure to choose a phone number.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/how-to-automatically-forward-a-cisco-tropo-sms-to-cisco-spark-using-built-io-flowhttps://www.built.io/blog/how-to-automatically-forward-a-cisco-tropo-sms-to-cisco-spark-using-built-io-flowMon, 19 Dec 2016 00:00:00 GMTThe New Year is just around the corner so we’re getting a head start to step into 2017 with a bang. New to Built.io Flow is a brand new user interface, packed with powerful new features. Here’s a look at what’s new in this update.

Brand New Look

We’ve redesigned the Built.io Flow Enterprise UI with ease of use in mind. We’ve also added a clean, vibrant look for an overall beautiful experience. Get a sneak peek in our overview video here.

Debug Panel

Get the execution details of your workflow in realtime. Open the debug panel at the bottom of the page to view the details of your workflow actions, such as execution time, input-output, error logs, and so on.

Two-Factor Authentication

Add an extra layer of security to your Built.io Flow Enterprise account. You can now enable two-factor authentication that turns your mobile phone into an authentication device, thereby protecting your data from intruders.

Improved Canvas Page

We’ve added a lot of great features to improve your workflow.

Copy-Paste: Replicate action(s) with just a mouse click

You can now copy-paste one or more actions on your canvas. Just select the action(s) you wish to copy, and use right click to copy and paste it into another part of your workflow.

Detach: Detach link and re-attach it to another action.

Gone are the days when you had to delete the link connecting two actions to make changes to your workflows. You can now simply detach the link between two actions and re-attach it immediately to another action.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Boost your productivity by using newly introduced keyboard shortcuts. You can use the shortcuts to traverse your workflow or perform a number of operations on your canvas at lightning speed.

We’d love to hear what other features you’d like us to add and which services you think we should integrate with. Leave us a comment below.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/introducing-a-new-ui-improvements-to-workflows-and-morehttps://www.built.io/blog/introducing-a-new-ui-improvements-to-workflows-and-moreFri, 16 Dec 2016 08:00:00 GMTAs we enter the holiday season, we wanted to put together some ideas for gifts for your office. After all, you spend a third of your life there – may as well make it awesome! Here’s our roundup of our favorite integration hacks.

The Gift Of Fitness: A Fitbit Team Dashboard

It’s been well documented that sitting for hours at a time is bad for your health. This holiday season, why not spearhead healthy habits with your peers with this Fitbit bot? With a simple command, you and your coworkers can share all of your daily activity to a ‘Fitbit room’ in Cisco Spark, Slack, or your favorite group chat tool.

The Gift Of Gab: Voice Controlled CRM

How many times have you been in a meeting and have been asked about a report or metric which you could quickly answer? This holiday season, solve that problem by creating a realtime voice-activated system so you can spin up accurate data in meetings. This workflow connects CRM Pipedrive to Alexa.

The Gift Of Inspiration: Spread Cheer With These Chatbots

Happy thoughts, brought to you by bots! Liven your team up with this bot workflow that shares inspirational quotes via a bot in Cisco Spark created by Laura Giles. While this workflow pulls from Quotes.rest, you can replace it with your favorite quote API.

The Gift Of Scheduling: Connected Conference Room

Our partner Macadamian put together the ultimate connected conference room complete with Philips Hue lights to indicate whether a room is busy or not and the ability to book or rebook meetings onsite via voice command. Bring your company into the future using this as a source of inspiration to DIY or contact Macadamian for a quote.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/appy-holidays-build-these-integration-gifts-for-your-officehttps://www.built.io/blog/appy-holidays-build-these-integration-gifts-for-your-officeThu, 15 Dec 2016 00:00:00 GMTOur friends at Event Tech Guide are a savvy bunch that are helping people in the meeting and events industry take on their tasks through technology stacks.

Pain Points Of Managing Your Work On Spreadsheets

According to their research up to 90% of event organizers continue to use spreadsheets and email as their foundational tools for keeping track of tasks, while a smaller number use event management software or project planning and collaboration tools. The reason? Spreadsheets are extremely versatile and, bottom line, they just work. But The Event Guys pose a valid question: what should you do about working your spreadsheet into the rest of your event tech stack?

“The pain of having to upload spreadsheets into your software can be tedious, and also prone to error. It can lead to dirty data (oh! no!) and duplication. It can be a nightmare to track which is the right or latest version, and difficult to stay up to date on, when it’s been uploaded to your reg platform, mobile event app, CRM, or CMS.”

Maintain The Spreadsheet, But Automate The Process

The answer to the above question is integration, which is used for a variety of reasons - one of which is automation.

“If you want a full enterprise grade iPaaS system than we recommend you consider The Event Guys iPaaS platform from Built.io Flow. This platform is unique in that it’s focused on bringing integration to the event industry and making it easier for organizers to build event tech stacks made from best-of-class event services. This platform can incorporate your Excel spreadsheets (or Google Sheets) with Event Technology, like the Swoogo registration platform, or the Hubb.me CMS, or MAP Digital, or the Eventpedia or AnyEvent App mobile event apps.”

So today, we are pleased to inform you that our security has been upgraded with the introduction of two-factor authentication for Built.io Contentstack. This opt-in feature enables secure access to your account and ensures safety of your data and resources that reside in your Built.io Contentstack account.

Two-Factor Authentication Defined

When you log in to your average social networking site or app, you typically enter your username/email and password to access your account. This may be the single step taken by the website/app to verify your identity and grant access to your account. This is known as one-factor authentication.

When you add another factor to this password-only authentication system, it is known as two-factor authentication (2FA). In such a setup, you are required to provide an additional piece of information to verify your identity. In general, 2FA uses two of the three possible methods of verifying an identity:

Benefits Of Two-Step Authentication

Today, most services focused on improving the security of the users and their data have adopted 2FA as a standard method for authentication. This is mainly because 2FA ensures that even if one of the factors have been compromised or leaked, the other factor keeps hackers/criminals from breaking into your account, thereby minimizing the risk of data theft.

Now, the next time you try to log in to your account, you will be first asked to enter your login credentials (email and password). Then, it will prompt you to verify the security code that you get on the Authy app installed on your phone. If you do not have the app, you can request to receive the verification code via SMS. You will be granted access to your account only upon entering this security code.

Why Introduce Two-Factor Authentication Now?

Two-factor authentication is not a new concept and, as such, is a proven method to enhance security, which is more important than ever. With the recent feature enhancements and updates to Built.io Contentstack, users now have more power and control over the content stored in their account than ever before – something an intruder could exploit. 2FA minimizes this risk substantially.

Conclusion

Owing to the increasing risks due to the growing level of sophistication by online hackers and attackers, security measures around the world are constantly evolving. While 2FA does not completely eliminate all potential threats, it makes it a lot harder for attackers to hack your accounts.

As of now, two-factor authentication is an opt-in security feature that can be enabled/disabled for your Built.io Contentstack account as and when you wish. However, we highly recommend you to enable this as soon as possible to keep you account safe from potential threats.

To learn more about two-factor authentication, please read our documentation.

If you already have a Built.io Contentstack account, you can set up two-factor authentication here.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/introducing-two-factor-authentication-a-new-level-of-securityhttps://www.built.io/blog/introducing-two-factor-authentication-a-new-level-of-securityFri, 09 Dec 2016 00:00:00 GMTWebhooks provide a way to notify external apps, services, and urls when changes are made in your content stack. For instance, you can create a webhook that notifies a URL whenever a new entry is created in a particular content type or whenever an existing content type is modified. This allows for data synchronicity across applications.

While it was always possible to use webhooks in our content management system, Built.io Contentstack, we have made several major changes to make webhooks more secure and powerful. Here’s what’s new:

Basic HTTP Authentication

You can now add basic HTTP authentication to make your webhooks more secure. To do this, add a username and password before saving your webhook. This will ensure that the webhook data will be accessible only by the users who have the credentials.

Custom Headers

We have added the functionality to add custom headers to your webhook. This lets you pass any number of key-value pairs to the webhook URL when the webhook is triggered. This is especially helpful when the receiving URL needs additional data such as API key or access token of your application.

Manual Trigger

If the destination URL is not able to accept requests due to any reason, Built.io Contentstack will make multiple calls ( five attempts total) to the URL at regular intervals. After the fifth attempt, it will stop making calls. However, at any given time, you can access the activity and make the call manually.

Detailed Logs

Now you can view all the details of a webhook call by clicking the “Logs” link inside the webhook’s configurations area. You can sees the date and time when the webhook was triggered, the current status of the webhook call, and the “Call Details” – which shares the results of the request and response of the webhook.

Watch the video to learn more about our new features and how to use webhooks in our CMS.

Until very recently, the world was incredibly focused on mobile - and so naturally content (sites, blogs, video, ads and the like) all followed suit, first on mobile only sites and later on those that are responsive.

But today screen sizes aren’t limited to just mobile devices like tablets and phones, let alone laptops and desktops. Screens are everywhere: on smart watches, VR headsets, or jumbotrons at arenas. Even a smart TV is essentially a screen that has applications that display content now..

This poses a challenge for anyone creating and sharing omnichannel content. How do you ensure your content looks good on every device? How do you get it out there into the world and onto the screen - without having to format for every single size variation? Because let’s be honest - that’s going to take forever regardless of how agile your team is.

The answer is APIs (Application Program Interface). In the context of content, the content management system that supports APIs without dependency on the presentation layer is a headless CMS.

With a headless CMS, you can literally point your content to any screen (and anywhere else you need to) thanks to the power of APIs. In a world where technology is driving what feels like daily change, building in flexibility by going back to basics is a smart approach.

Rise Of Omnichannel Marketing

Omnichannel probably deserves an explanation for this context. Simply put, omnichannel means cross channel being done well. It means the look and feel of the website isn’t much different than on mobile, in-store, and any other interaction is also connected to that look and feel. For the consumer, it means there is a continuity of experience. This continuity is even larger than the brand, website or storefront. It extends as far as how the customer collects data and defines their experience for themselves.

It doesn’t take much extrapolation to realize that this goes far beyond the content models that most businesses are using today. Done well, it means that a customer trusts a brand to bring content to every experience whether within the control of the brand or outside of it.

As an example, for a large retailer, that means first being able to put dynamic offers in mobile apps. These offers are no longer hard-coded and submitted to Apple for approval— they can be updated on the fly. But moving beyond mobile, they’re prepared to use mobile as a bridge into whatever container they have in mind for their dynamic offers. That container could be an automobile, a smartwatch, or anything else that allows the consumer to “carry” their experiences with them.

Future-Proofing

In times of this magnitude of change, companies need to think hard about what tactics they can employ to help futureproof a business. To prevent today’s investment from being squandered, they need to consider technology options that offer the most flexibility going forward. This is where headless CMS comes strongly into play. The ability to manage content independently of where it will end up is game-changing. With so many industries making the switch to focusing on APIs and microservices, headless CMS content falls very neatly into a very future-proof pattern. If there was ever a time to take the leap of faith, it is now, and many marketers are realizing that if they build it, their content needs will come.

Planning For Performance

And it isn’t just about the destinations for content. There’s a powerful argument for planning ahead for systems to perform at greater speeds than are needed today. The headless model provides a unique ability to cache content where performance demands. In this new API and microservices world, integration, push notifications and many more things have become easier than ever before. It’s a great thing that API-based applications are being built with less effort and cost, meaning that what doesn’t work can be pitched, and what works can be a place for follow-on investment. Low cost and effort means less emotional attachment to a particular solution. Taking a risk just became cheaper thanks to new architectures and approaches.

The future proofing ability of a headless CMS, the technologies of APIs and microservices and the big push for omnichannel marketing are a perfect match for each other. These are complementary technologies that will continue to see growth in the coming years. Headless CMS is the new content engine, APIs and microservices are the structural engine for change, and omnichannel is the new mobile-first. They all couldn’t have come soon enough.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/content-managers-omnichannel-is-the-new-mobilehttps://www.built.io/blog/content-managers-omnichannel-is-the-new-mobileTue, 06 Dec 2016 00:00:00 GMTOnce our headless CMS customers have made the decision to move to a flexible, API-driven approach to content management, there are obvious questions about how to begin. Like any change, knowing what to expect and best practices for implementation will make this powerful change happen smoothly. The best way to advise on a great implementation is to break down expectations by the organizational roles that are involved.

Marketing Rollout

For the CMO and those in Marketing, the change presents itself as a Web UI with a series of templates to manage the input and movement of content. In a big break from traditional CMS, the marketer no longer requires programming skills and won’t need to understand logic frameworks when entering content. This prevents training from being a hurdle and fosters adoption by marketing users.

The setup of the CMS structure has a potential impact on the marketing end user and this is an area to put some thought. The best practice is to match the navigation and site structure so that navigating the CMS is as easy as navigating the site. This image is a good example of how the two should align:

We also recommend using third party tools to maintain pricing models and other functionality. This is a more powerful way than traditional CMS plugins that require integration and also helps to keep the focus on the content rather than complexity that isn’t in marketing’s wheelhouse. This “putting the focus on content” theme is one of the largest benefits of a headless CMS and should be a focus for implementation.

Most organizations have a need to put content in groups to benefit the marketing user. These groups help with organizing content that that will be published together in sections or tiles at the content destination. Working with groups makes layout considerations more simple, and this may seem like a broken record, but also puts the focus on the content. Yes, there’s a consistent theme here.

Marketers focused on content will still want to preview the look and feel of publishing. Publishing to a staging front end solves that need and serves as a failsafe prior to putting content out in the public. Beyond the clear previewing benefit, using a staging front end ensures that IT isn’t required to move content to production. This is a clear benefit to any organization used to having wait times and handoffs for getting content out to its destinations.

IT Rollout

For the CIO and the technologists in the organization, the SaaS model for headless CMS delivery makes life fairly easy. It allows existing code to be reused and only requires the integration of prior systems with new headless CMS APIs. APIs and Microservices are a clear trend in technology today and technical resources are noticeably enthusiastic about this aspect of headless CMS systems.

Like any new and different technical approach, developers will need to be trained in using APIs to call content from the headless CMS. They’ll need to feel comfortable with the concept of calls that request all that data that is then mapped to the presentation layer. Unlike Marketing, where training isn’t required, the new patterns for work should be clearly laid out.

Modifying And Optimizing

Once up and running, modifying and optimizing a headless CMS is fairly straightforward. Customers use rich text editors and have found value and flexibility in adding CSS to their entry as a way to structure content on the fly without IT. An example would be using CSS to right justify or center justify content so that when it hits the destination, formatting unique to the content shows up.

The process required to maintain a headless CMS is not different from any other Web development. There is a need to determine templates, content, and the CMS structure to match templates. Default template structures are chosen within the CMS so that marketing people can add new campaign pages quickly and easily.

The last but perhaps the most fundamental advice for rolling out a headless CMS is how to add new destinations for content. For the Marketing team, new destinations like mobile devices, watches or the Jumbotron aren’t an issue. Only the front end code is changed to optimize for the new destination, and technology-focused resources can create multiple stacks to address this or contain all the requirements in a single stack. Most importantly with a headless CMS, all of the data, the content, resides in just one place.

Why Built.io And Moxtra?

Built.io provides a digital business platform to help organizations accelerate their digital transformation by tapping into the power of APIs and microservices. Its flagship product, Built.io Flow, allows individuals and companies to connect anything with an API, which in turn automates business processes and enables new experiences for mobile, web and IoT, .

Moxtra is at its core a collaboration API, which provides “embeddable collaboration for the mobile era”. It’s a place for your team to receive alerts, communicate and collaborate from anywhere in the world using the Moxtra Application for iOS and Android, and Web.

Naturally we thought this would be a great fit. Now, with the combination of Built.io and Moxtra you can easily set triggers from all of your day-to-day applications, and beam notifications and alerts directly into Moxtra.

Here are a few ways you can use our tools together.

How To Use Built.io® Flow Enterprise™ And Moxtra

File Management

Tools: Google Drive, Evernote, Microsoft OneDrive

Your team’s content is stored throughout multiple different repositories. Legal may use a different file platform for signatures than they do for document creation. Marketing may upload to Evernote, while engineering is using Microsoft OneDrive. Having content throughout multiple repositories can defeat the purpose of having cloud-hosted content in the first place. If it’s not all in a centralized repository, or easy to find and access, then having them virtually hosted can be a detriment to productivity, instead of an enhancement. With Bult.io and Moxtra you can streamline content into organized, topic-based conversations, or binders. By having your content all in one space, regardless of where its source was hosted, gives teams the visibility and accessibility to remain productive. Try this workflow (must be logged in to Built.io Flow Enterprise).

Sales Teams

Tools: Salesforce, Quip, Twilio, Moxtra

Sales teams can create their own individual and team workflows utilizing Built.io Flow and Moxtra. By connecting their everyday services like Salesforce, Quip and Twilio, users can create end-to-end sales workflows spanning multiple applications. Prospect and collaborate on opportunities and contracts, always remain up to date on the status of your pipeline, host demos and communicate effectively with your clients. Try this workflow (must be logged in to Built.io Flow Enterprise).

Project Management

Tools: Wunderlist, Trello, Moxtra

Many applications are built on the promise of making things easier. In the case of project management, it is the coordination, assignment, and completion of tasks that the applications aim to streamline. However, many times teams find that one application is better for tracking individual tasks, while another may be better at tracking an entire project and deadlines. This is where Moxtra and Built.io Flow come in to allow teams to combine the best parts of their favorite project management applications and have all of the information consolidated streamlined into one dashboard in order to keep a full view of your team’s projects. Try this workflow (must be logged in to Built.io Flow Enterprise).

E-Commerce

Tools: Shopify, Google Sheets, ActiveCampaign, Moxtra

Streamline your business by connecting your payments, invoices and transactions together through Built.io Flow and Moxtra. Upgrade your existing online store and allow for requests, messages, payments and invoices to alert you directly in Moxtra. Get notified when you need to take action, automatically update email marketing software, track information across spreadsheets and let your business run itself. Try this workflow (must be logged in to Built.io Flow Enterprise).

Real Estate

Tools: Smartsheets, Google Places, Moxtra

The Realty business has a lot of moving parts, including disparate resources and convoluted processes that need to be tracked and completed according to rigorous schedules. By utilizing Moxtra and Built.io Flow, users can manage all of their properties, clients, architects and construction teams from one unified command center. By having the ability to use Moxtra on their phone, laptop, or tablet, it gives them the freedom to instantly message, share and iterate on documents, manage property lists, maintain up to date information and host live meetings and virtual walkthroughs. Try this workflow (must be logged in to Built.io Flow Enterprise).

Developer Teams/Product Management

Tools: GitHub, Twilio, Google Sheets, Moxtra

When developing products, team communication is paramount. Making sure everyone knows what their tasks are, as well as how they fit into the overall project is key to success. Moxtra and Built.io Flow not only let you keep everyone in contact – and projects moving – but it also serves as an amazing platform for resolving errors and issues. With Moxtra and Built.io Flow, the instant a new commit has been made, the team can be notified and the code can be verified. Team members can correspond and take action against a new error and resolve it from immediately and before customers are ever aware that there was an issue. Try this workflow (must be logged in to Built.io Flow Enterprise).

...And the list goes on and on.

Let us know about your favorite workflows in the comments, and feel free to publish yours to the community library if you’re a Built.io Flow Enterprise user.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/announcing-the-built-io-and-moxtra-partnershiphttps://www.built.io/blog/announcing-the-built-io-and-moxtra-partnershipThu, 01 Dec 2016 00:00:00 GMTWe’re thrilled to announce we’ve won the Silver ‘Best in Biz’ Award for Most Innovative Product of the Year – Enterprise.

Built.io was recognized because, since its inception, the company has relentlessly delivered innovation, constantly pushing the boundaries of what’s possible and applying cutting edge technology to solve real world business challenges in new and interesting ways.

Built.io’s flagship product – Built.io® Flow™ – empowers organizations to create enterprise value through integration. Whether you’re a business user or a developer – with Built.io Flow effectively democratizing integration, everyone is able to connect their favorite apps and tools. By connecting sensors, systems and software across mobile, web and IoT, Built.io Flow allows enterprises to create innovative experiences for their customers, employees and partners.

Since its launch, Built.io Flow has added hundreds of new services and today boasts thousands of integrations in its library, spanning developer tools such as Docker and GitHub, cloud software such as Salesforce, Cisco Spark, Zendesk and Mixpanel, consumer IoT including Uber, Nest and FitBit, as well as on-premise applications such as Oracle and SAP. Built.io Flow operates entirely in the cloud – from design to deployment – without requiring setup, installation or configuration of local software components.

Built.io Flow has been making headlines throughout 2016, including marquee partnerships with the likes of Cisco, multiple “first and only” feature releases and soaring adoption among enterprise customers. With a pipeline chock full of innovation and momentum, 2017 is gearing up to be even more triumphant.

Best in Biz Awards honors companies, teams, executives and products for their business success as the only independent business awards program judged by members of the press and industry analysts.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/built-io-wins-a-silver-best-in-biz-awardhttps://www.built.io/blog/built-io-wins-a-silver-best-in-biz-awardWed, 30 Nov 2016 00:00:00 GMTA content delivery network (CDN) is a set of servers scattered across the planet, helping you deliver content to users faster. So, the most important thing you will need for a faster website is a CMS with CDN.

Understanding CDN And Why It’s Important For Your Team and Business To Have A CMS That Supports It

Research shows that if a webpage takes 5 seconds or more to load, the website loses approximately 50% of its primary audience and 80% recurring visitors. From these statistics, it is evident that reducing the wait time for visitors is one of the most important features, if not the most, that a website should have.

While a reliable CMS platform helps in achieving this to an extent, a CMS with CDN can drastically improve the response time and, evidently, user experience.

This article will tell you everything you need to know about CDN—in non-technical terms—and why it is crucial that you have a CMS that has CDN as a built-in feature.

A CDN-Less Scenario

The internet is everywhere. If you have a hosted website, it’s available everywhere, too. However, the website and all the content within are stored somewhere, at a physical location, from where it delivers content to visitors across the world.

Let’s assume that your website is hosted in San Francisco, California. When a user loads a webpage on your website, it fetches the content (including images, videos, CSS, JavaScript) from your server in San Francisco and displays a view to the visitor. It works perfectly fine if the user request is coming from San Francisco or from anywhere within California.

But if the requests are coming from Canada, China, Cuba, or Chile, your content needs to travel a lot of distance before they reach where they need to be displayed. Moreover, if many users are requesting for the same content at the same time, the server gets bogged down and may take more time in managing the load and queuing up responses. Quite naturally, the speed of content delivery is affected as a result. The website may experience higher latency and longer page-load time.

This is where CDN comes in.

CDN Speeds Up Content Delivery And Increases Website Load Time

]]>

https://www.built.io/blog/builtio-contentstack-meets-cdn-turbo-charge-your-websiteshttps://www.built.io/blog/builtio-contentstack-meets-cdn-turbo-charge-your-websitesMon, 28 Nov 2016 00:00:00 GMTHaving a great idea, like implementing a future-proof and flexible headless CMS, is only half the battle of getting it done—or maybe even less. The real battle kicks off when the time arrives to gain organizational buy-in for a bold plan. It begins with understanding exactly why moving to a better way is worth the effort. For many organizations, difficulty executing campaign-based marketing is a powerful catalyst. Most engineering-based businesses that got off the ground by focusing on product releases reach a point that requires this shift to ongoing campaigns. Other times, it’s the hiring of a new marketing director that forces an organization to rethink sitting and waiting for new content—they know they have to move now. More than anything, though, the need for buy-in is based on the need to grow at the speed of marketing.

The Head Of Engineering

There are multiple personas that drive the decision for a headless CMS and each needs to have their rationale locked down. When I’ve talked to heads of engineering, for example, the problem shows up as marketing needing updates to content. Without a CMS in place, that requires a change request and then two weeks of waiting in the queue for a code push. They aren’t moving at the speed of marketing and they know it. What’s more, they realize that demands are increasing for other work like new integrations and new marketing tools. The headless approach puts content first and lowers the risk of locking into anything that might be a poor decision later. Every Engineering leader wants to avoid decisions that become risky over time. And it isn’t just later that matters. A headless approach takes developers out of the loop of content flow right now and, at the same time, takes recoding out of the drive to keep marketing happy. A Head of Engineering is fully bought in the moment they realize, “Wait, I can add some API calls and keep going?”

The Marketing Director

The new Marketing Director isn’t just a catalyst for change, they’re also keen to update content without complexity and to publish in a way that’s familiar and easy. They aren’t bound by templates that have to be coded and things are easier for their marketing team. I’ve been in situations where marketing gets adventurous and begins to put .css controls directly into the CMS that affect the presentation layer, simply because it became easy to make layout changes without involving IT. They are able to manipulate elements of the layout, not merely the content itself. The Marketing Director is fully bought in the moment they realize, “This was easy and there was little to no training required.”

The CTO

Lastly, the CTO has to be invested in the outcome as well. This individual is most concerned about slowing down their engineering team from accomplishing their primary purpose. In-house work that avoids hiring more bodies is always the preference. A CTO is bought in the moment they realize, “I can keep marketing and engineering happy and productive.”

Each of these personas has other options beyond the headless CMS, but each option comes with significant drawbacks to one group or even all. Many of my customers considered building a CMS in-house with existing expertise. But they invariably figure out that the skills and coding required are an enormous tax on the organization. They’ll pay a high price while straying from their requirements and core mission. Good DBAs, DevOps and other required skills command salaries well over $100K for maintaining a traditional CMS. Organizations start with the belief that WordPress or Drupal are a good starting point, but then quickly realize that they’ll encounter complexity in other ways and lose lots of flexibility in the process.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/how-to-get-buy-in-for-moving-to-a-headless-cmshttps://www.built.io/blog/how-to-get-buy-in-for-moving-to-a-headless-cmsWed, 23 Nov 2016 00:00:00 GMTIn our latest release, we have brought some major updates that focus on improving the speed, security, and reliability of Built.io Contentstack.

The Latest And Greatest List Of Features And Upgrades

Here’s a rundown of the most important changes of this release.

1. Introducing CDN Support.

Built.io Contentstack is partnering with Fastly—a leading content delivery network (CDN) provider—to provide the benefits of high performance content delivery to users anywhere in the world. Fastly has multiple servers spread across the globe that store duplicated content of your website for lightning fast access to content.

As a result, the visitor of a website powered by Built.io Contentstack receives data from the nearest server whenever it’s requested, instead of having to wait for the original server – which may not be the closest and fastest to respond. For instance, a site visitor located in the US will get data from Fastly’s San Jose server, while another visitor from Germany will receive the same data – but from the Frankfurt server. This improves the response time dramatically, as well as providing an additional layer of reliability and resilience.

2. Assign language-based permissions to users.

A WebHook is an HTTP callback: an HTTP POST that occurs when something happens; a simple event-notification via HTTP POST. A web application implementing WebHooks will POST a message to a URL when certain things happen.

Webhooks on Built.io Contentstack are now more secure, reliable, and easier to use than ever. We added basic HTTP authentication for an added layer of security to webhooks. we’ve also introduced custom headers in webhooks; think of this feature as an easy way to label them, so if you push code and it has the old webhook you’ll know right away. You can also now check status, view requests and responses of each triggered webhook. Laslty, in case the destination URL isn’t accepting requests due to any reason, Built.io Contentstack now makes five consecutive attempts at regular intervals. After this, a user can update it manually.

5. Set validation rules for fields.

You can now add validation rules for fields so that there are fewer errors and no irrelevant data in your content repository. We have introduced a new property for single-line and multi-line text fields: Validation (regex). It lets you set validation checks for the fields. The validation rules need to be defined using JavaScript regex. An example of validation would be defining regex that checks if the value entered in a field is a valid email address.

6. Create reference to entries of same content type.

We’re pleased to say you can also now reference entries of the same content type. In the case of a creating a blog, if you have blog post A, B, and C under a single content type and wish to reference blog post A in blog post C, then you can now reference that entry under a single Content Type.

For more information and tutorials on these features, refer to our in-depth ]]>

https://www.built.io/blog/introducing-a-faster-more-secure-and-more-powerful-web-content-management-systemhttps://www.built.io/blog/introducing-a-faster-more-secure-and-more-powerful-web-content-management-systemWed, 16 Nov 2016 00:00:00 GMTBots are an amazing vehicle for workflow automation, especially when paired with a collaboration tool. So earlier this year, CDW ran a bot-a-thon. The concept was simple; build a bot and tie it into Cisco Spark as the interface. Participants would be judged on creativity and functionality - but the point was to help people discover the real value of bots and a method to automate work flow and in the process give them access to tools that could facilitate the creation and adaptation of bots within their own domains.

7 Bots Use Cases

To get started, we identified 7 categories of use cases for bots.

External alerts. This includes updates for things like weather or news.

Internal alerts. There alerts generally come from a management console and are pager-like alarm systems.

Data retrieval and display. Typically this comes off as queries & systems that mashup results that could be used in the context of, say, a dashboard.

Individual / team workflow. This might include automating repetitive tasks to optimize time.

Business / enterprise process workflow. These workflows are more complex and might be helpful for HR, Sales, or Support and really delve into multi-step processes.

Enhancement to the Cisco Spark app. This might look like pulling stats on who's posting what, how often resources are being used, or promoting tool adoption.

Just for fun. Bots that tell jokes, play games, send photos, etc.

Someone experimenting on their own, might focus on category 7, but most of the bot-a-thon teams focused on categories 4 & 5, and nearly all teams used Built.io® Flow Enterprise™. They gravitated to Built.io® Flow Enterprise™ because it enables people to produce complex flows that work with many tools and many steps without requiring a deep knowledge of programming.

A Breakdown Of The Top Bot-A-Thon Workflow Automations

The projects varied in complexity. Below is a quick overview of what was created:

General Company-wide Task Management: Combined Sharepoint Task, 365, Cisco Spark, and a response group through Built.io Flow Enterprise. While our team got their prototype working, it turns out that this idea was so good that Red Booth made it happen as well (they integrated into Cisco Spark for task and project management).

Sales Dashboard: built on Node JS, created a live dashboard that used a bot to pull internal data and a service called Plotly. Any time someone closed a big deal, everyone got alerted by Cisco Spark.

Department Process Management: This team automated an internal process for QA bid assurance that included gathering files, posting to box,notifying the various team and approval people of pending actions, tracking who had reviewed or approved/rejected/amended which documents, then reporting status and updates back to Cisco Spark as the approval process progressed. They used Built.io Flow Enterprise to connect everything.

Medical Office Management: This team connected reservations, appointment reminders in Tropo, faxes got shared in a Cisco Spark room, used voice recognition through Tropo, connected APIs from Good RX and a major pharmacy. They used Built.io Flow Enterprise to integrate all of the working pieces.

The hypothetical medical process management tool won because of how complex the workflow was and how many different external activity sources were combined.

If you’re just automating one thing with a bot you’re not really solving a problem, you’re just changing the interface. - James Adams from CDW

The only exception to this is if the bot lives in the platform that you will utilize every single day. For example, I used to spend most of my time in email, now I have migrated most of my work from email to Cisco Spark so I have an easier time writing a flow because I don’t want to move interfaces - so having a bot in Cisco Spark that even just performs one repetitive, dull, or obnoxious task that can easily be automated is still helpful. But solving that one thing isn’t really useful to most people, my peers perhaps, but not within my wider organization.

To fully harness the power of bots, integration, or automation - what you really want to do is solve a complex problem that touches a lot of steps, tools, systems, or departments through automation. - James Adams from CDW

That’s precisely why the medical process management team won the bot-a-thon; it unified all of those parts of the business. It focused on using Cisco Cisco Spark and Tropo and then brought in a lot of steps across an entire day that might take place within a medical office. Reservations would show up in a Cisco Spark Room. Customers would get appointment reminders from Tropo. Faxes would get pushed as a PDF into a Cisco Spark Room. They connected APIs from pharmacy outlets like GoodRX and Walgreens, so that a medical staff member could request medication directly from Cisco Spark.

The key takeaway for me was realizing that automation and integration are really a process. Where you are in the scale of the automation process defines how you see its value.

This might be analogous to feeling hungry, so you walk out of your house to the place down the street to get a burger. But you’re hungry again tomorrow and you have no groceries. Next time you go to a grocery store, which is great because you have food to eat for the week, but you still have to assemble it, which takes time. So the next time you order takeout for delivery, then the next time you try a food delivery service that picks up pre-assembled goods. This is full automation: you’re saving time by having it come to you and you no longer have to spend time putting it together, either.

The same goes for the workplace. In the beginning, many processes are manual. You’re busy but you have to get it done, so it’s not such a big deal to spend hours making it happen. Then after awhile you start to see where there are repetitive steps and you're spending time fulfilling them when you should be doing other things, so you start automating simple tasks. Maybe reporting. Eventually you see that your report will help another team decide what they should do next, so you share it with them. Then you’re working together with tools that might not sync naturally. That’s when an integration tool and a lot of automation can come in handy.

The moment that bots begin to become useful is at the beginning of a journey towards automation - but the great thing about them and the tools that support them - is that they can scale with you as your automation becomes more mature. - James Adams from CDW

I’d encourage everyone to think about automating processes so that you can better scale your work and help with organizational health within your business.

To understand and, more importantly, value the differences between traditional, decoupled and headless CMS platforms, you first have to let go of the idea that content management systems (CMS) are purely a marketing-focused tool. Managing the production, design and distribution of content has become a major function of most marketing departments. The marketing team has grown used to doing it all and being enabled to design and deploy a web page within their team. This is the case for a traditional CMS deployment and within large organizations the lack of governance in this model can prove troublesome.

Traditional - Or "Coupled" CMS

There are clearly pros to doing it alone, but that ability has come with some rather serious drawbacks. For starters, pages need to conform to the database structure they sit atop. By extension, content needs to conform as well. Before you know it, content is being forced into structures that aren’t friendly, intuitive and may not perform to expectations. For all of the benefits of the WYSIWYG editor of the traditional CMS, it can only take an organization so far.

Keep in mind that the traditional model was established for websites and was able to modify with responsive themes to adequately manage mobile, but there’s a world of change coming that won’t be satisfied with these systems. Also, traditional systems require components beyond the database, creating challenges for management and scale.

Decoupled CMS

Demands for greater flexibility and scale have led to the concept of a decoupled CMS. In this world, marketers focus on creating content, and developers focus on the presentation of the content in the front-end. With this approach, the style and presentation of the content is not stored within the content, giving greater flexibility. Marketers do what they’re good at (content), and developers do what they know and love (coding).

The downside to a decoupled approach is that the moment a front-end is chosen, the limitations of that choice are then baked into the solution. So while you’ve solved some of the limitations of the traditional approach, you haven’t solved all of them. You’re still in a world that’s tightly coupled to the past.

This decoupled model, like the traditional model, hits its limitations when content needs to move quickly to cross-platform use cases.

Headless CMS (Or API-First CMS)

The need to have systems with even greater flexibility both now and into the future has given rise to another option headless CMS. There is some overlap with decoupled CMS in the sense that it allows for healthy separation between marketing and development needs. However, a truly headless model allows for the limits imposed by any coupled front-end to be thrown out . You end up with centralized model for content but a flexible and better-performing model for where content can go.

This is because the Application Program Interface (API) approach of a headless CMS allows content creation to forever remain separate and distinct. Born in tandem with the explosion of API growth and the focus on microservice architecture, anything can call content from a headless CMS. Content becomes just another (but very important) service that can be called by a website, a mobile device, a software platform, an automobile, VR headset, Jumbotron or whatever tomorrow’s technology looks like.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/traditional-vs-decoupled-vs-headless-cmshttps://www.built.io/blog/traditional-vs-decoupled-vs-headless-cmsThu, 10 Nov 2016 00:00:00 GMTWe’re pleased to unveil a new division here at Built.io: The Innovation Lab. Staffed with experts from our cloud, mobile, integration and IoT teams, the Innovation Lab is designed to help jumpstart digital transformation projects at mid-size to large companies.

What Can You Do With The Lab?

The Innovation Lab offers a free initial consultation to help businesses streamline and explore the application of cutting edge technology that will both solve current challenges and help future-proof a company. With the team and technology standing by, consider this your turnkey playground to quickly and safely test out new ideas and create best of breed digital POCs in IoT, mobile, and API-first ideas for a fraction of the cost and in a fraction of the time it would take to do it yourself.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/announcing-the-innovation-labhttps://www.built.io/blog/announcing-the-innovation-labMon, 31 Oct 2016 00:00:00 GMTHalloween has always been a fun time to experiment with creativity. We decorate, we carve pumpkins, we wear costumes; all for the spirit of Halloween. With technology like smartphones, smart office buildings, and smart houses - why not also have a smart pumpkin? There’s no better way to scare neighbors and/or coworkers than with a talking, motion-sensored pumpkin.

A Quick Overview

The goal was to get the pumpkin to detect when someone is present and then engage (read: scare) that individual with a witty pun or one-liner. In order for that interaction to happen, we needed to build a couple of integrations. We gave life to the pumpkin by adding internal lights. For full effect, we set it up to change color at random when it senses someone nearby with a sensor. Then we synced the light with a bluetooth speaker – the voice of the pumpkin – which is triggered when the light changes. The light change prompted the pumpkin to say a preset phrase like, “Hey, I see you”. This works as intended to get people to pause and wonder what’s happening. Meanwhile, the pumpkin, connected to the cloud and in no specific order, pulls from a list of one-liners, jokes, or punchlines in a Google Spreadsheet.

As a test, we set the pumpkin up by a box of doughnuts in the office. The doughnuts of course were just bait to make sure people walked by since no one can resist doughnuts. Check out the results below:

Now, let’s talk about how to build something like this on your own.

The "Gut" Of The Project

Here is the list of things you will need for this project:

A Pumpkin (Real or Fake)

Philips Hue - A smart light that will change colors upon recognition of a person. Great for added oomph.

Intel Edison - This is the brain of the operation. It is tiny computer that will power the text-to-speech (TTS) translation and audio playback through the Bluetooth speaker.

Constructing Your Frankenstein Smart Pumpkin

Choose A Victim

Here is the fun part if you have a real pumpkin, you’ll need to carve it. After carving the pumpkin, you'll want to put a hole in the back (depending on the size of your light fixture) to place the light into the pumpkin. This makes hiding wires and other unsightly things much easier.

Sometimes it can get really messy with a real pumpkin, so fake ones are just as useful.

Build And Connect The Brain

Start with the lights. You will need an internet connection to connect your Philips Hue bulbs to your Philips hub. Follow Philips Hue’s easy setup instructions to get started and note you’ll also need to sign up as a developer on their site. By getting developer access, you’ll be able to give Built.io Flow Enterprise’s integration platform permission to remotely control the lights when people walk buy.

Next, move on to the Intel Edison. At its core, this tool is just a really small yet powerful computer. So, we will need to get all our project dependencies installed.

In this example, we simply used the default voice. It sounds a little robotic, but you can use a more human-friendly voice service like Watson or Alexa as well. Here is an example of how to get that set up. While using the festival TTS, the default voice was the most understandable in realtime.

Bring It To Life In The Cloud

Losant is an IoT platform that makes it easy for us to connect our devices to the cloud and take action on that data. Every 10 seconds, the Intel Edison will send the motion sensor reading to Losant. Losant has a drag-and-drop workflow engine to interact with the data. This workflow is triggered by the Intel Edison. When Losant receives motion sensor data from the device, it checks to see if it detects a “true;” if so, the system sends a message to Built.io Flow – which is triggered by a webhook – to run its workflow.

Built.io Flow Enterprise’s powerful integration platform-as-a-service (iPaaS) engine makes it easy to connect and integrate hundreds of APIs and turn everyday things into smart devices. Losant’s workflow in Built.io activates the Phillips Hue light and makes it change colors, and then it randomly pulls a one-liner or pun from our Google spreadsheet to deliver back to Losant. In doing so, Losant commands the speech through the bluetooth speaker.

“Which ghost is the best dancer? ...The Boogie Man!”

The Possibilities Are Endless!

This pumpkin is cool, amusing, and very easy to put together – it took just a day to build. If given more time, we would’ve increased the creep factor in many ways. Here are some other ideas that came to mind:

Attach a microphone to add two-way communication between the recipient and the pumpkin.

Attach a camera to detect and engage in live conversations with individuals walking by.

We hope you enjoy building this connected pumpkin as much as we did.

For more inspiration, Losant has compiled a list of great tutorials and projects you can try your hands at. Also, check out Built.io Flow Enterprise’s integration library which includes hundreds of integrations for work applications and other things that have APIs. So, the possibilities are endless!

How do mummies end a conversation?

"And that's a wrap, folks!"

Happy Halloween!

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/how-to-build-a-motion-sensored-iot-smart-pumpkinhttps://www.built.io/blog/how-to-build-a-motion-sensored-iot-smart-pumpkinFri, 28 Oct 2016 00:00:00 GMTIf you’re up-to-date in the content management space, you know there’s been an enormous amount of change in the business and technology landscape of content. In fact, the space is growing so quickly that it can be a challenge to find a definitive guide to these changes. After reading this, you’ll understand the benefits of moving from a previous generation content management systems (CMS) to something designed for not just today, but into the foreseeable future.

Going Headless

First and foremost, the need to deliver content across multiple channels (mobile, web, smartwatches, and everywhere) has driven organizations to switch to a more focused, sophisticated, and scalable CMS – known as “headless.” Rather than a heavy interface that manages both user input and structured output, typically for the web, a headless CMS has that title because its content, the body, is independent from the presentation layer, or “head” (think of the well-known Wordpress presentation layer or “front-end”). A headless CMS provides the backend to create, manage, and store content, and allows an organization to build its own front-end based on business and technology needs.

This approach provides content creators with the tools and the interface to create and publish content, full stop. It does not provide design templates, themes, or presentation tools, and does not care about how and where the content will be presented. With this approach, content is fully decoupled from presentation, making a headless CMS a platform for content management in its purest form.

Difference From Traditional CMS

A traditional CMS provides for management of all the important components of a website, which include layout, templates, content editing, and the final presentation. Many also provide visitor analytics, A/B testing, and several other related features.

Headless CMS, on the other hand, does exactly what a pure CMS should do: It focuses on the core task of creating, storing and organizing content. The front-end is a completely separate system that uses APIs, another very hot technology, to fetch content from the CMS.

In a headless implementation, when a request is made by a user (through a mobile app or a website), an API call is made to fetch the content. The requested content is pulled from the CMS system and is displayed on the mobile app or website by assembling content along with its design elements. This delivery of content via APIs is known as Content-as-a-Service (CaaS).

Downside To Traditional CMS

Traditional CMS offer many add-on features as a way to cover additional functionality. The benefits gained, however, translate to more management overhead and contribute to slower development and update cycles.

The Advantages Of Going Headless

Add-on features increase complexity and create a significant challenge in a world where incredible pace of change puts more demands on businesses to make systems more flexible than ever before. This is why a headless CMS offer many important advantages over traditional CMS.

Here’s a look at each of them below:

1. No presentation limitations – build the best design ever.

Headless CMS allows developers to rise beyond the front-end restrictions that come with legacy CMS, and gives full control over the design and user experience. It allows developers to use any complementary technology, including customizable layouts, rich web apps, and other tools to create their own custom front-end. Once created, the front-end can be redesigned any time, without re-implementing the CMS.

Users consume content on a variety of digital channels: Web, mobile, smartwatch, displays, etc. Headless CMS lets you cater to all of these, independently, without the need to create content separately for each platform. Content is created in CMS, and then delivered to an endpoint via APIs. The same content can be served to other platforms throughout the customer journey. In other words, it allows you to distribute content anywhere, anytime from one central repository.

3. Highly scalable content – for all your devices and microsites.

Once you have stored the required content in the repository, the content management system can then be used to deliver structured content to multiple websites, mobile apps, or devices. This makes it highly scalable and flexible.

4. Minimum training required – get started, immediately.

Unlike the case with traditional CMS, content managers using headless content systems are not required to manage the front-end. This means, they are not required to learn new skills (such as HTML, CSS, PHP, etc.) to use the CMS. They just need to learn how to feed data into the CMS. The front-end can be independently handled by the developers/designers.

5. Faster content delivery – for a smoother experience.

A platform dedicated for delivery of content can be faster and more responsive than a system that assembles a tailored response based on complicated rules.

6. Easy integrations – connect with everything.

Most CMS’s provide webhook integrations that let you connect with third-party applications. It lets you notify about events in your CMS to other applications in real time. Similarly, CMS’s with APIs can be integrated with several applications on the web

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/a-definitive-guide-to-content-management-in-the-api-agehttps://www.built.io/blog/a-definitive-guide-to-content-management-in-the-api-ageWed, 19 Oct 2016 00:00:00 GMTWe’ll be at Dreamforce from October 4-7, at booth 27 in the Developer Forest, located in Moscone West on Level 1! We couldn’t be more excited to show off, for the very first time, our brand new automation tool, Built.io® Flow Express™, including all its turnkey integration capabilities for Salesforce. Be sure to connect with us there or by Twitter. Below you’ll find more details of our full schedule.

We’re All Up In Dreamforce (Literally)

We’ll be taking over Dreamforce with a voice bot! Powered by Built.io® Flow Enterprise™ and Amazon’s Alexa, the bot will provide “Concierge” services at the main IoT Zone Salesforce Welcome / Info Desk. Visitors can check in or ask questions about sessions, the schedule, or booth information.

Booth Demos

Speaking of voice bots, you can also catch our live demos at our booth. We’ll be there in full (dream)force from Tuesday to Friday, demoing our integration Platform-as-a-Service, Built.io Flow, with bots and other fun IoT Please swing by to see the action, ask us questions, or get insight into which Built.io Flow product is best for your automation and integration needs.

Speaking Sessions

Don’t miss Kurt Collins, our Director of Technology Evangelism and Partnerships speak this year. His hands-free, slide-free talk at API World was stellar, so you won’t want to miss this one.

Tuesday, October 4

Session 1 @ 11AM-12PM
Session 2 @ 3PM-4PM

Attack Of The Killer (And By Killer, We Mean Awesome) Voice Bots!

The future is here! The phrase ‘there’s an app for that’ will soon be obsolete as the latest iteration of chatbots – voice bots – take over. Between consumer versions like Siri and Alexa and more robust, enterprise-ready options that focus on natural language like API.ai, the world is ripe for change - and being UI free. Join us as we discuss how to build hands-free voice bots that integrate with Salesforce using Built.io Flow, an integration Platform-as-a-Service (iPaaS) that connects disparate systems and helps companies automate and innovate.

In this workshop, you’ll learn:

What’s going on today in the AI bot ecosystem

How you can supercharge bots though integration

How to build a bot

How to use Built.io Flow to connect and enhance bots

Bot scenarios designed for Salesforce

If you’re interested in attending, you can sign up in the IoT Cabin on site.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/catch-builtio-at-dreamforcehttps://www.built.io/blog/catch-builtio-at-dreamforceTue, 04 Oct 2016 00:00:00 GMT® Flow Express™ – Automation for Business Users]]>Today is a big day for business users and citizen integrators! We’re introducing the world to the newest member of the Built.io family: Built.io Flow Express!

Built.io Flow Express is a brand new, business-friendly automation tool that distills all the integration goodness from our original integration tool, Built.io Flow Enterprise (formerly Built.io Flow), into a simplified interface. It’s now even easier for those of us who are less technical – i.e. don’t have coding skills – to automate workflows. No more filing support tickets – this is self-serve automation at your fingertips, to enable you to work smarter and faster.

How To Use Built.io Flow Express

Here are just a few things you can do with Built.io Flow Express:

Create invoices in QuickBooks pre-populated with information from Salesforce Sales Cloud or SalesforceIQ.

When a new partner is added to Marketo, create a task in Asana to add them to a marketing campaign.

Get notified via email, chat or SMS whenever an important file is updated in Dropbox or Box.

When a support ticket is escalated in Zendesk, create a chatroom for sales and support teams to coordinate a resolution in Cisco Spark or Slack.

There are lots of other ways in which you can use the tool. You can always get inspired by using templates once you’re in the product.

Two Integration Products – Serving Very Different Teams

So, why two integration products? Simply put: Different people have different skillsets, but we all benefit from automation. This way business users can connect all their apps, services, and devices in just a few clicks, and technical users (developers or those in IT) still get their robust tool as well.

The best part is that business users will be able to export their workflows from Built.io Flow Express to Built.io Flow Enterprise, making Built.io Flow the first end-to-end integration suite for people and teams with varying technical skills. Here are some examples where this will come in particularly handy:

You’re a business user in a big enterprise organization. You have an easy automation that you can DIY with Built.io Flow Express. Eventually your ideas for workflows outgrow your technical skills. Now you can call in IT or a developer who can use Built.io Flow Enterprise to fill in the blanks.

You run a small or medium-sized business without a dedicated IT team or large budgets for integration. Equip your teams with Built.io Flow Express and Built.io Flow Enterprise to create “citizen integrators”. As your business grows, you have peace of mind that the platform can scale and handle your growing needs.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/introducing-built-io-flow-express-automation-for-business-usershttps://www.built.io/blog/introducing-built-io-flow-express-automation-for-business-usersMon, 03 Oct 2016 00:00:00 GMTWe’re back from one of our favorite conferences of the year, API World. In case you weren’t able to make it, here’s a quick look at some of our favorite moments:

Intriguing Demos

We hacked a Tesla (yes, we had an actual Tesla at our booth!) to show off how powerful, yet easy, integration can be. Watch the video here:

Using Built.io Flow to connect a wide range of devices, tools, and services, we showcased four very different examples to illustrate the variety of use cases you can enable via drag-and-drop integration:

Connected Business. By connecting Cisco Spark, Box, and Ignite, we built an easy way to improve collaboration in an enterprise environment.

Connected Hospitality. By connecting Sonos speakers, LIFX Lights, Raspberry Pi, and an Electric Imp, we simulated a futuristic connected hotel experience in which a user’s preferences for ambiance settings around music and lighting could be activated to deliver the ultimate, personalized, fully automated check-in experience.

Connected Bot. By connecting Tropo, API.ai, Weather Underground, Linkedin, and Google Calendar, we demonstrated how you can create your own personal virtual assistant (read: bot!) that can be instructed via voice to do your bidding.

We opted to show off this wide range of scenarios to illustrate both the value of integration across different domains, as well as the power of a tool that can connect all services, all departments, and all industries.

Special thanks to our friend Jason at Cisco for loaning us his car computer. We couldn’t have shown off without his help.

A Hands-Free, Slide-Free Talk

Our signature talking head Kurt Collins took to the main stage – sans presentation. Instead, our Director of Technology Evangelism and Partnerships brought his bot into the conversation and interacted live with it / him / her on stage – all to prove that bots and AI have finally gone mainstream and have become useful tools for everyday situations.

Winning!

We’re thrilled to be taking home yet another award! Built.io Flow was voted by our peers as the best ‘API Middleware’ at the show. For that, we’d like to say THANK YOU!!

Why We Love API World

Put on by the stellar DevNetwork team, API World is the world’s largest vendor-neutral conference that focuses exclusively on the power of APIs. Its audience is a compelling mix of enterprise developers, alongside technical decision makers. If you’re trying to scout out the latest trends around integration and APIs, this is the conference where you can catch a glimpse into the future. For our part, we’ll keep doing our part to make APIs pervasive and useful and we won’t rest until the Internet of APIs is available to all.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/missed-api-world-catch-up-on-connected-teslas-bots-and-awardshttps://www.built.io/blog/missed-api-world-catch-up-on-connected-teslas-bots-and-awardsThu, 22 Sep 2016 00:00:00 GMTWe’re pleased to announce that Built.io has won another award! Looks like we're heading in the right direction, because Compass Intelligence Awards have voted for us as the IoT/Intelligent PaaS Company of the Year. Winners of the 4th annual 2016 Compass Intelligence Awards were selected by a group of 40+ members of the media including editors, journalists, thought leaders and analysts who cover technology.

The program included three primary award categories: Mobile & Wireless, A-List in IoT and M2M, and Bamboo Mobile (Green Tech). The awards identify the best in mobile devices and software, wireless technology, platforms, IoT, wearables, reuse/recycling of devices, connected products and emerging solutions.

Built.io Flow won in the A-List in IoT and M2M category for its ability to automate business processes, boost mobile apps and harness IoT. Because Built.io Flow connects in the cloud, it allows businesses to scale, get the most recent software updates and agilely move and adapt to incorporate the speed of new technology. Along with this award, Built.io Flow has had a momentous year including:

A new update in July that makes integrations even easier with an Activity Builder and Data Mapper – watch out Zapier and MuleSoft

Winning a Gold Stevie Award in the 2016 International Business Awards for Best New B2B Product

This win exemplifies the importance of integration technology to companies of all sizes and industries. Our integration product Built.io Flow stood out among its peers – truly showcasing its value in unifying disparate IT systems and connecting anything with a digital heartbeat and an API. – Neha Sampat, CEO of Built.io.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/compass-intelligence-awards-confirms-built-io-is-heading-in-the-right-direction-for-iot-https://www.built.io/blog/compass-intelligence-awards-confirms-built-io-is-heading-in-the-right-direction-for-iot-Mon, 05 Sep 2016 18:30:00 GMTKurt Collins, Director of Technology Evangelism and Partnerships at Built.io, is at it again! Dzone just published his recent byline, "Backend APIs Just Make Sense". Says Collins,

The fundamental advantage to using APIs in the backend lies in the predictability of an API’s requests. Being able to manage the flow of data and monitor for expected outcomes makes the job of an IT administrator significantly easier. IT administrators have to look out for the security of the enterprise network. Application and API developers are often on the other side; they care about innovation. While there will always be tension between the two, there is one space the two groups should be able to agree on: usage of APIs in the backend can increase efficiency and security throughout the enterprise. It’s time we build on that common ground and make our infrastructure more secure in the process.

“Headless” models: In the same way, commonly used content management systems (think: Wordpress, Joomla) are becoming outdated, and developers are moving to headless models (like built.io) where the point of content management is no longer to display anything in particular (think: a website), but instead to display everything in general. Data moves from an editing interface to its final destination, which could be a website, an app, an application or the Jumbotron at the ballpark without the creator or consumer being tied down to any one pattern or program. Content creation, edition, movement and consumption is entirely through APIs with no cumbersome application built to contain the user. Instead, the user is freed from restrictive design choices/real estate limits. This increases the velocity of business as well as providing remarkable future proofing.

Click here to read the full article on LinkedIn- it's definitely worth a look.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/an-api-is-not-a-type-of-beerhttps://www.built.io/blog/an-api-is-not-a-type-of-beerMon, 29 Aug 2016 00:00:00 GMTYet another win for the Built.io Team! We’re excited to announce that Built.io Flow was awarded a Gold Stevie® Award in the Best New B2B Product category in the 13th Annual International Business Awards.

The International Business Awards are the world’s premier business awards program. Stevie Award winners were determined by the average scores of more than 200 executives worldwide who participated in the judging process from May through early August 2016. The judges were impressed with Built.io Flow’s user interface, which handles complexities in ways that its competitors cannot. They recognized how Built.io Flow benefits organizations across multiple departments by connecting all kinds of disparate systems. One judge noted that Built.io Flow solves a personal challenge they are experiencing.

We are thrilled to win a Gold Stevie for Built.io Flow. By building ways for customers to connect applications from all parts of their business, we are democratizing integration. Built.io Flow is a crucial and powerful new catalyst for organizations looking to easily integrate their business processes, become more connected and fuel innovation. – Neha Sampat, CEO of Built.io.

Nicknamed the Stevies for the Greek word for “crowned,” the awards will be presented to winners at a gala awards banquet at the Rome Cavalieri Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Rome, Italy on October 21, 2016. Details about The International Business Awards and the lists of Stevie Award winners are available at www.StevieAwards.com/IBA.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/builtio-flow-wins-gold-stevie-awardhttps://www.built.io/blog/builtio-flow-wins-gold-stevie-awardTue, 16 Aug 2016 00:00:00 GMTThanks to those of you who attended our webinar, “How To Build A Bot With Cisco Spark And Built.io Flow” featuring Kurt Collins of Built.io and Steve Greenberg of Cisco.

About This Webinar

Bots are an easy way to automate complex tasks that can span multiple systems. When they’re implemented, they ensure teams are more productive by making information more accessible, faster. In this webinar, we’ll show you how to build a bot using Cisco Spark and Built.io Flow. Cisco Spark is a leading enterprise tool that helps modern teams work together from anywhere at any time – with group messaging, content sharing, video calling, and desktop sharing. Built.io Flow is an enterprise-grade integration platform that enables both business teams and developers to seamlessly connect tools, devices, and services, ensuring disparate systems work together. Together, these tools are primed for maximum productivity in the workplace, especially when paired with bots.

We hoped you enjoyed learning:

The basics of Built.io Flow

The basics of building a bot

How to easily customize a bot

Watch This Webinar

Missed it, want to share it, or just want to watch it again? View the recording below and the slides HERE:

Get The Q&A

Q: How much does Built.io Flow cost?

A: Starts at
$29 per month and scales up for different use cases. To learn about our enterprise and group plans, please email info@built.io.

Q: Is pricing based on users creating bots? Or the number of bots created?

A: Pricing is based on monthly usage (seconds of runtime), so there is no limit on how many bots you can create nor on what they do.

A: We support thousands of activities, triggers, and actions in Builtio.io Flow’s vast library of integrations.

Q: What if there’s an activity I want to add?

A: We can add it (it’s really fast and easy) OR you can use the Activity Builder in Built.io Flow to add it yourself. You can also include it via an HTTP request to access existing endpoints, if your API isn’t public.

Q: Does this work with IoT devices?

A: This works with anything that has a digital heartbeat or an API, so systems, drones, cars, buildings, the list goes on. Companies are using Built.io Flow today to connect their wearables, homes, campuses, arenas, and even cities.

Q: Can you program bots to respond to natural language queries? As an example, I’d like to say, "What is the weather in San Diego?" so that the bot behaves like Siri or Amazon Alexa?

A: Yes. You can use a natural language processing platform such as API.ai or IBM Watsonto interpret the question and provide the appropriate answer.

Next Steps

To get notified about our next webinar, subscribe to our blog at the bottom of this page. If you’re interested in building you’re own bot on Cisco Spark, sign up for Built.io Flow and Cisco Spark and take a look at the tutorials and documentation available on our documentation site.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/webinar-recap-how-to-build-a-bot-with-cisco-spark-and-built-io-flowhttps://www.built.io/blog/webinar-recap-how-to-build-a-bot-with-cisco-spark-and-built-io-flowWed, 10 Aug 2016 00:00:00 GMTWe’re thrilled to announce our latest update to Built.io Backend! Version 3.0 presents a pluggable architecture for more robust security, better app performance and greater control over data for the most customizable, robust, enterprise-grade Backend-as-a-Service ever for Mobile, IoT and web.

Previously, MBaaS solutions were either all DIY or 100 percent pre-built. You had to choose between convenience and control. With the rise of microservices, we set out to build something more customizable for our customers. Now developers can create a best-of-breed backend stack with any combination of out-of-the-box functionality, custom code upgrades and third party enhancements.
- Matthew Baier, COO, Built.io

Notable Built.io Backend 3.0 Updates And Features

Built.io Backend for the first time combines the convenience of a pre-tested, scalable, proven backend stack with the control typically reserved for a hand-crafted, manually assembled backend stack. Here are just a few of our favorite updates:

Pluggable Architecture
Built.io Backend 3.0's pluggable architecture enables developers to integrate custom business logic directly into Built.io Backend's code base. Developers can write plugins that call third party services, query or write data to another system, or execute custom code whenever there is any API interaction, e.g. between the app and the backend. This enables the addition of powerful, bespoke capabilities for any app created in Built.io Backend.

Data Set Segmentation for Upgraded Security
Built.io Backend's hosted, multi-tenant cloud instance already separates environments from each other to prevent unintended or unexpected application interactions. Built.io Backend now segments data further into entirely separate collections. Customers benefit both from additional data isolation but at the same time gain greater control over how the data in their applications is stored and accessed.

Database Indexing for Better Performance
Traditionally, multi-tenant MBaaS does not allow for custom indexing at the database layer, because the architecture is shared across applications. Built.io Backend 3.0 now offers support for indexing even for its hosted, multi-tenant environment. This allows DevOps teams to apply database optimizations on an app-by-app basis – customized for a particular workload – resulting in dramatic performance boosts.

Direct Object Data Access
Data stored in MBaaS is typically accessed via interaction through web forms, which are simple to use but overly restrictive. With Built.io Backend 3.0, data can now be accessed in its raw format, for unfettered, direct object manipulation by a developer.

Customer Love

We love the new Built.io Backend pluggable architecture. It enabled us to create a custom backend stack tailored exactly to our needs. Because the core is so lightweight, our apps now run 3X faster in the cloud and with fewer resources needed than ever before. - Brianna DeMike, Co-Founder, ZenContent

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/introducing-the-first-customizable-enterprise-baas-for-app-developershttps://www.built.io/blog/introducing-the-first-customizable-enterprise-baas-for-app-developersTue, 09 Aug 2016 00:00:00 GMTIf you work in a midsize or large organization, chances are your departmental product stack is somewhat cobbled together, since everyone has their own preference for tools and they don’t always play nicely with each other. Different departments use different tools to accomplish the same objective. Acquisitions forcefully merge incompatible technology stacks together. It can be maddening and it can certainly make integrating everyone’s tools a big challenge.

Regardless of how hard it is to do, everyone benefits from integration and connecting tools, products, services, devices and more can unlock considerable value.. Here are a few of the top reasons why companies take on integration challenges:

Automation. Automating tasks frees up time, money, and resources that are better spent elsewhere. It takes human error out of the equation and makes processes more easily scalable.

Savings. By connecting APIs that don’t work out of the box, you could save a lot of money that would be better spent elsewhere. Champagne for team building, anyone?

Collaboration. If you can connect all your business-critical systems across the organization, cross-departmental collaboration becomes easier and more efficient. Imagine sales, marketing, HR and finance all on the same page.

Innovation. Bring the allure of connected products, services, and devices into the office. Incorporate the latest consumer innovation into the business can spark incredible innovation (just remember what happened when mobile phones became a business tool).

Competitive Edge. Being able to do things more efficiently and more quickly, fostering collaboration and innovation – in combination, these benefits can make the difference between winning or losing as a business. Integrating means winning.

What are the reasons you integrate? We’d love to hear them. Email them to us at info@built.io.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/top-5-reasons-to-integratehttps://www.built.io/blog/top-5-reasons-to-integrateTue, 19 Jul 2016 00:00:00 GMTIntegration used to be and is still perceived as a difficult, time-consuming, and expensive task. Even when you’re done implementing integration, that’s just the beginning of the painful process. Application, services and systems don’t naturally, automatically work together, and it takes a team of experts to make the magic happen. That is, unless you tap into the power of a modern, cloud-based integration platform.

We’ve rounded up the top five reasons to choose an Integration Platform-as-a-Service (iPaaS) over legacy integration.

Cost. Adding up all the costs associated with the (wo)manpower, infrastructure and licensing of traditional integration approaches, you’re quickly in the realm of 6 or 7 digit budgets to enable even the most basic of integrations. Choosing an integration Platform-as-a-Service can quickly save companies 80% to 90% compared to the old ways.

Agile and lightweight. Traditional integrations are brittle; using cloud integration provides a flexible architecture that allows organizations to easily create new integrations and change or adapt them on demand. Particularly well suited for the current era of mobile apps and cloud-enabled web services, maintaining integrations is pretty much hands-free as well.

Time to result. Industrial-grade, highly sophisticated integrations take hours or days to implement, instead of months.

Recently recognized by leading research firm Gartner with the “Cool Vendor” designation, Built.io Flow provides companies a revolutionary new way to tackle integration. From straightforward “If-this-then-that” scenarios to advanced automation spanning CRM, marketing automation, quote-to-cash – to name but a few – Built.io Flow provides intuitive drag-and-drop tools for business users to create powerful integrations – no training or IT support required.

To try Built.io Flow out – for free – sign up here. Alternatively, feel free to contact us if you have any other questions or would like to chat with a team that has been integrating systems for a living for the past decade.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/top-5-reasons-to-choose-a-cloud-integration-platformhttps://www.built.io/blog/top-5-reasons-to-choose-a-cloud-integration-platformMon, 18 Jul 2016 00:00:00 GMTThe theoretical benefits of integrating cloud technology and the IoT ecosystem are well-documented, but actually connecting services, systems, sensors and devices is often easier said than done.

Here are the top challenges companies are struggling with today:

Cost. Implementing integrations, merging technology, and then rounding up the resources it would take to actually make it happen often seems out of reach for teams with limited budgets and / or (wo)manpower.

Time. Even if a team is able to find budget and tap into professional integration expertise , it often takes 6 months or longer just to deploy and set up the integration environment that is intended to power the desired integrations. Actually implementing the latter can quickly double the overall timeline.

Complexity. Integration is not just about connecting one tool to another; it’s about enabling new business processes or automating existing one. Companies need to anticipate all potential scenarios and interactions – including edge cases – between the connected systems. You’re not just connecting Dropbox to Salesforce, you need to think through what happens to the data and dependent processes when things are created, edited, deleted, transferred to a different owner etc.

Coordination. Whenever you’re integrating business systems, you’ll likely end up having to coordinate between multiple systems as well as multiple teams. Questions like Who owns what?” or “Who can see data that’s being exchanged?” require anticipation and a clear plan ahead of any significant integration projects.

Maintenance. After you’ve launched your integration(s), what happens to them?. Maintaining both the connected systems as well as the integration technology itself can be a burden in perpetuity. Integrations shouldn’t delay system updates and API updates shouldn’t break any automated business processes.

Despite all these challenges, the many benefits of integration are undeniable and businesses have invested (and continue to invest) billions of dollars to capitalize on the value integration can unlock. Click HERE to read what they’re doing to conquer the above issues.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/top-5-integration-issues-companies-face-todayhttps://www.built.io/blog/top-5-integration-issues-companies-face-todayFri, 15 Jul 2016 00:00:00 GMTWe’re pleased to announce new features and pricing for Built.io Flow! Integration tools have traditionally forced customers to choose between ease of use and power. But Built.io Flow scales effortlessly with the skills of the user and seamlessly spans the gamut from a casual business person all the way up to an integration expert. Our latest updates make it easier for enterprises to perform integrations.

In this new version, the company is making it easier for businesses to build their own integration endpoints for services that aren’t in Flow’s database yet. This new Activity Builder also now allows organizations to use the service for their private internal APIs.

In addition, Flow now also includes a new data mapping service that allows you to transform data between two different systems. The example the company uses for this is integrating Salesforce and Marketo, which use very different nomenclatures for what are essentially the same fields in the user interface. The company also today launched its Trigger Tester, which uses dummy data to make it easier to test integrations based on real-time events.”

– Frederic Lardinois, TechCrunch

You can read more about what TechCrunch had to say about our updates here or read the full press releasehere.

Here’s a recap of our latest updates:

● Activity Builder: In addition to thousands of out-of- the-box integrations maintained by the Built.io team, developers can now create their own activities to immediately enable any desired new service or API endpoint and add it to their integration library.

● Swagger and RAML Support: Users can create flows connecting any service that supports either Swagger or RAML – the industry’s two dominant API description standards – without writing a single line of code.

● Data Mapper: The Data Mapper simplifies the transformation and transfer or data between heterogeneous systems. For example, when sharing customer information between Salesforce and Marketo, which use different nomenclature and formats for their customer objects, the Data Mapper allows data to be easily reconciled.

● Flow Library Importer: With this upgrade to the Built.io Flow Library, flows can now be imported significantly faster via an intuitive wizard that guides the user through the configuration of all the flow’s elements, such as triggers, connections, authentications.

● API Lookup: Many popular services such as Cisco Spark, Moxtra and Evernote use abstract IDs to reference rooms, messages or notes programmatically. Users can now quickly select the desired or required parameter via a convenient, searchable drop-down menu – without needing to know a service’s internal representation of it.

● New Integrations: Built.io continues to add to its library of out-of- the-box integrations, including popular SaaS offerings such as Pipedrive, HubSpot and Trello, as well as IoT-enabled endpoints, such as Amazon Alexa and Tesla Motors’ vehicle APIs.

In addition to the strong traction with enterprise developers, Built.io Flow adoption is also soaring among users that fall into the “no-code / low-code” demographic – basically, technically savvy individuals that don’t self-identify as developers. In order to accommodate the needs of these “Citizen Integrators” Built.io is introducing new subscription tiers: With entry level pricing starting at $29 per month and credit card payment options, individuals and small businesses can now tap into industrial-grade integration at consumer pricing.

All new features of Built.io Flow become generally available worldwide on July 14th, 2016. Learn more at www.built.io/flow.

The new Data Mapper simplifies the transformation and transfer of data between heterogeneous systems.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/announcing-new-enterprise-features-and-pricing-for-built-io-flowhttps://www.built.io/blog/announcing-new-enterprise-features-and-pricing-for-built-io-flowThu, 14 Jul 2016 00:00:00 GMTWe’re pleased to announce Built.io and Macadamian will be at the Microsoft Worldwide Partners Conference in Toronto, from July 10-14! We’ll be showing live demos of our ‘Connected Conference Room’ throughout the event. The concept was created to solve a problem employees face on a daily basis when it comes to meetings; getting kicked out of a conference room, waiting for another team to leave, or overlapping schedules. Even with the allure of the shiny iPad system at the door, people forget to check in or out.

We were inspired by the experience many of us have on some level in connected homes and decided to bring the best parts of it to the office. When you connect a light to a calendar as well as a physical space, suddenly you can quickly and intuitively remove common headaches associated with meeting logistics. From a technology perspective, the solution is made possible because Built.io Flow can connect anything with an API in minutes.

Watch this demo video to see what we’re talking about, or schedule a ‘Connected Conference Room’ demo at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partners Conference by emailing Timon LeDain at tledain@macadamian.com or Gal Oppenheimer at gal@built.io. Gal and Timon are also happy to chat about which Microsoft technologies can be connected using Built.io Flow on premises.

USER EXPERIENCE OVERVIEW

A busy indicator light is installed outside the room (think of the red/green light you see in underground parking garages that tell you if the spot is free). That light will tell someone, at a glance, if the room is available immediately.

A usage monitor uses a motion sensor or ambient noise detector in the room to determine if the room is currently occupied. If the room is booked, yet unoccupied, the system will automatically release the room to make it available to other people. The system will attempt to contact the owner of the meeting before unbooking to give the owner a last chance to keep the room.

An ambient indicator in the conference room (a light) will slowly change color when the end of the booked meeting time is approaching. This indicator will give different feedback if there is something else scheduled in that room or if it is free.

To successfully create a connected conference room, integrations are a must. Macadamian used Built.io Flow to power our connected solution because it empowered their developers to build robust and agile integrations quickly.

The connected conference room is powered by four flows that connect the indicator light, motion sensor, and microservices. The flows used leverage the pre-made activities as well as numerous developer tools available in Built.io Flow.

Calendar Trigger FlowThis flow parses the meetings for each conference room and updates the status of each room and passes the information to the Light Control flow.

Light Control FlowOnce the status required has been sent, the light control flow takes over. This flow sets the inside and outside indicators to the correct states. Based on the meeting and occupancy information, the lights are scheduled to change to the correct states.

Notification FlowIn addition to the indicator light, there is an automated email reminder that is sent based on the time before or during a meeting slot. The meeting organizer is first reminded that there is a meeting, if the room is not occupied within XX minutes another email is sent stating that the room is not occupied and that the room will be released in XX minutes. Once the can buffer time has passed, the meeting organizer is notified that the meeting has been cancelled and the Light Control Flow adjusts the indicators to the correct state.

Insteon FlowThis flow provides a user with the ability to schedule a meeting during a time slot if there is a conference room available during the requested time slot. If the time slot is available, the meeting is created and the data is passed to the other flows.

These four flows run asynchronously, passing only the required data to keep each meeting room updated. By separating the four main tasks, the integration is much lighter and requires much smaller instances. In addition, the smaller instances, the system is resilient and robust when there is a hardware or microservice issue.

Leveraging this technology is easy by yourself on Built.io, or Macadamian would be happy to assist you as well.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/meet-the-connected-conference-room-by-macadamian-and-built-io-at-microsoft-worldwide-partners-confhttps://www.built.io/blog/meet-the-connected-conference-room-by-macadamian-and-built-io-at-microsoft-worldwide-partners-confMon, 11 Jul 2016 00:00:00 GMTWe’re pleased to announce Built.io will be at Cisco Live in Las Vegas, from July 10-14! We’ll be storming the event by way of a booth with live demos, multiple talks, and a live chat on Twitter, co-hosted by Cisco. Here’s the full Built.io schedule below.

Booth

Come visit us at Booth #1809 to chat about your integration needs, problems, aspirations – you name the challenge, we can solve it (likely while you’re still at the booth). Get a sneak preview of the future of Built.io Flow and check out our dazzling demos showing off all the cool things you can do by integration Cisco Spark and Tropo with other cloud services and the world of IoT. We’ll be raffling off a fantastic bottle of wine for our contest, selected by our resident sommelier execs Neha and Matthew. If you sign up for Built.io Flow at the booth, we’ll hook you up with a supercharged free trial.

Oh, and if you’re on Snapchat, be sure to use our geofilter at our booth and at the party!

Talks

Monday, July 11

5:30 PM @ CDW Booth (#1909)

Head over to hear Kurt Collins, Director of Technology Evangelism and Partnerships at Built.io, and James Adams, Solutions Architect at CDW share some great tips, tricks and best practices for integrating Cisco technology via Built.io Flow.

Tuesday, July 12

1:30 PM @ CDW Booth (#1909)

Missed Kurt and James’ talk on Monday? Head over to the CDW booth for another chance to catch the presentation.

Wednesday, July 13

1 PM @ DevNet Theater

Built.io joins Cisco execs on a panel discussion titled ‘Unleashing the Power of Cloud Collaboration Platforms through Open APIs & SDKs’. The event will be moderated by Susie Wee, VP and CTO of Networked Experiences at Cisco, and features the following panelists:

We’ll be featured in Casey Bleeker and Steven Greenberg’s breakout session, ‘Integration Platforms as a Service: Real World Use Cases’. Be sure to check it out.

BotChat

Wednesday, July 13

10 AM on Twitter (@Builtio, @CiscoSparkDev, @Tropo)

We’ll be co-presenting a #botchat with Cisco! Look out for “How businesses can use bots to make more money, faster.” Join in the discussion and ask questions – just follow the hashtag #botchat starting at 10AM on Wednesday, July 11 and be sure to follow @Builtio, @CiscoSparkDev and @Tropo on Twitter to get in on the conversation.

We’d love to chat any time between all of these great events. To get in touch, ask questions, set up a private demo, or just meet us for a glass of wine, email us at info@built.io or tweet at us (@Builtio).

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/join-built-io-at-cisco-livehttps://www.built.io/blog/join-built-io-at-cisco-liveThu, 07 Jul 2016 00:00:00 GMTWe’re pleased to announce another award has been added to the collection –Built.io Flowwas recently recognized as aStackWorld top 25 ScaleUp winner. The winners were chosen by the DevNetwork team for the most captivating stories on how specific technologies have helped customers scale up. The level of scale achieved, the speed in which the customer scaled up and the complexity/challenge involved in scaling up were all factors that influenced the winning decisions.

Unsurprisingly, Built.io Flow was recognized for how it powers all the integrations for the Sacramento Kings mobile application. During game time, Built.io Flow will orchestrate dozens of services and data sources for tens of thousands of fans and provide realtime game data faster than even the leading sports news sites. Talk about the ultimate, connected fan experience.

The judges recognized that Built.io Flow – our Integration Platform-as-a-Service (iPaaS) product – enables any developer to create business value through integration. By connecting sensors, devices, systems and applications across mobile, web and IoT, Built.io Flow allows organizations to easily create sophisticated workflows that automate complex business processes and deliver critical data to the right place at the right time.

We will receive this award at StackWorld, happening June 27-28. The conference is San Francisco’s largest DevOps + Scalability technology conference where 1,200+ tech companies scale their technology stack from clouds to DevOps tools to back-end coding languages.

We’re excited for this year’s event to kick off next week. In fact, our very own Kurt Collins, Director of Technology Evangelism and Partnerships, will speak at a session during the conference. His talk, Different Stacks for Different Bots: A Stack Is A Bot’s Best Friend, will take place Monday, June 27, from 1-1:20 p.m. PT. He’ll discuss the history of bots as well as the different technology stacks bots have traditionally been built on and what the advantages and disadvantages are with each stack.

If you’re planning on making it to StackWorld next week, make sure you swing by Kurt’s session today. We’re dying to tell (and show!) you all about Built.io Flow and the amazing things we’re doing in the world of automation!

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/another-day-another-award-built-io-wins-a-scaleup-award-in-advance-of-stackworldhttps://www.built.io/blog/another-day-another-award-built-io-wins-a-scaleup-award-in-advance-of-stackworldMon, 27 Jun 2016 00:00:00 GMTApple’s iOS 10 release is all about unlocking and opening up the iPhone. Until now, Apple kept core platform features such as Siri, Messages, Phone, and Contacts locked down. Unless you inked an unbelievable OS-level partnership (think Wolfram, Siri, Facebook, or Twitter, etc.) you were out of luck in terms of getting a system-wide integration.

Apple began the process of opening up the OS years ago through share sheets and followed it up with app extensions and custom keyboards. But these were all experienced within specific applications or use-cases. Apple’s changed all this with iOS 10.

In typical Apple fashion, they’ve started with a controlled release for specific use cases. Rather than enable all applications to integrate with Siri from the get-go, they’ve started with key situations that will ensure a controlled and successful experience. Users who enable Siri’s hands-free mode can do things like order a Lyft, send a message on any platform, or make a phone call without ever touching their phone. I’d expect all major applications to embrace this immediately. Some people may claim that Apple’s too late to the game, but that’s frankly besides the point.

Every time Apple has released a more convenient way for iPhone users to do something – whether they’re early or late to the game – users have embraced it. Think of the Today/Notification panel, Control Center, Cut and Paste, and Dictation. In every case, users adjust. A year or two from now, no one will even remember what life was like without apps that integrate with Siri.

I’m excited to see what happens when Apple lets other types of applications get access to Siri in the future. Imagine if you could control Spotify or Sonos without touching your phone, or if you could add to-do items to Wunderlist or Clear. The possibilities are endless for quick, one-off commands.

Apple has also opened up messaging significantly. For example, you can now set custom default message apps per user so Siri won’t try to text your friend in another country. More importantly, Apple opened up the ability for other applications to integrate into iMessage. On the surface, this might look like Apple’s version of chat bots, but they’ve taken a very different, privacy first approach.

On most platforms, bots essentially get unlimited access to the data in your chat. This allows the bot to interact with what you’re saying, but also raises the concern that a third party is essentially able to track everything you say with your friends. With Apple’s implementation, third parties can add (and update) content in your iMessages, but these apps cannot access or read anything that you write in the iMessage outside of their application. This approach is the first I’ve seen to put privacy ahead of functionality and I’m curious to see if this limits functionality for developers or empowers users to use these bots.

Default URL Pattern

Build Powerful, SEO-friendly URLs

The all new ‘Default URL Pattern’ feature lets you standardize the URL pattern for pages of your website. This is a common use case for the majority of our customers when building out a blog or a product catalog. You can define a URL pattern of your choice while creating/editing a content type. Once this is determined, Built.io Contentstack automatically generates the URL every time you create an entry.

For instance, if you decide the pattern to be www.yourdomain.com/:title, the auto-generated URL for your next post will be www.yourdomain.com/my-first-post.

You can include date, title, custom text, or a combination of any of these elements in the URLs. This gives you the flexibility to create meaningful, reader-friendly, and beautiful URLs that rate high on SEO parameters.Read the docs to get started with this feature.

Default Value for a Field

Save time and effort

While creating content types, you can set a default value for a field. The next time you create an entry, you do not have to manually enter a value for that field. It will, by default, contain the specified value. This reduces the time and effort spent entering the same data every time for a field. Content managers also maintain the ability to overwrite the preset value without having to make a request to development.

Data Columns

Field data at a glance

By default, the entries page displays basic info about each entry (such as title, created at, publish status, and version) in separate columns. We have added a new feature that lets you add data columns to display the fields’ data of each entry. This helps you get a quick overview of the data of all the fields in a particular content type.

Apart from introducing these new features, we have made several UI enhancements and bug fixes.

We would love to know your thoughts on these new features and improvements. You can post your comments below, or send us an email at support-contentstack@built.io.

Cheers,

The Built.io Contentstack team

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/built-io-contentstack-update-introducing-tools-for-better-productivityhttps://www.built.io/blog/built-io-contentstack-update-introducing-tools-for-better-productivityTue, 31 May 2016 00:00:00 GMTTraditional CMS can simply no longer keep up with the pace that digital experiences demand and consumers of content expect.

A few years back, I co-founded Built.io based on my observation that the pace of digital technology, particularly in content management, was transforming and accelerating. So much of that world was anchored to just two content interfaces; websites and mobile apps. I was convinced that a new generation of content management tools would be required to survive. It was clear that the rapid evolution of information consumption, both source and destination, created a perfect storm for most companies trying to become or stay relevant in the midst of all of this change.

From a technology perspective, this pace of change makes it exceptionally hard to attach infrastructure too firmly in any one system, or systems that limit future choices.

The Mobile Problem

Not that long ago, a web browser was the primary target for digital content distribution and consumption. With the introduction of iPhone, mobile quickly established itself as the new, dominant content channel. Incredible amounts of energy have since been expended and high levels of frustration experienced as mobility challenged the status quo in a powerful way, forcing organizations to reboot their thinking about information and its creation, curation, and presentation.

Apps were the early solution, but almost as quickly as that anchor seemed secure, we’re already realizing that we’re headed for a post-app world. This was summed up perfectly in a recent Medium piece:

“How is it that in 2015 we need to decide how to communicate and then search for the person? Or try to remember what platform they are on before opening an app.”

This is hardly specific to social apps. The same problem exists when looking for a flight or trying to find a consumer good. The problem of having content locked into a platform becomes more apparent with every new presentation layer we add to our world – from the smartwatch, to the heads up display, to the kiosk, to the jumbotron.

As with all technology, ultimately this problem will be solved in a way that makes our lives easier and reverses the platform-centric model. Such change will once again scramble the IT infrastructures we’ve grown dependent on and choices from a short time ago will once again seem shortsighted. The one thing we do know is that content can’t be tied to its delivery, whether that’s a browser, an app, or whatever else comes next. The reality is that the possibilities for content delivery are endless in a digital world, and we need to prepare for that.

Making Everything Modular

The alternatives are already a hot topic of conversation. The first and perhaps the Holy Grail of technology is to make everything modular. Monolithic systems have always been expedient to build but end up in the fast lane to redundancy. Modular building of software and systems has been a goal for a long time, but the recent surge in popularity of APIs offers, for maybe the first time, the chance to reach that goal.

We created an entire digital business platform at Built.io on this premise and with the goal of solving the problem of how to build high-performance systems for delivering content that’s agnostic to platform. We need to forget about anchors and provide the ability for content to be sourced anywhere, destined for anyplace. It’s time to think past the traditional CMS as your content source and beyond the website or mobility as your goal.

Is your digital content anchored to the past? Then now’s the time to take your content management into the future.

‘Smart Tags Input’ is a JavaScript plugin that allows you to easily turn any text input (entered within double curly braces) into ‘smart tags’. This helps you highlight important pieces of data and differentiate them from normal text.

Examples:

{{Sample Text}} will be converted to:

{{$a0.base_link}} will look like:

The Features – How is it different from other ‘tag’ plugins?

Edit text: The text within smart tags is editable, unlike most tags. You can edit the text by just clicking on the tags.

Easy customization: The type of brackets that Smart Tags uses to identify text to be converted can be changed. The default is curly braces. This can be modified by changing the options provided in init(options) startLimit and endLimit.

Quick delete: Once normal text is converted to smart tags, you can delete the entire tag in a single ‘Backspace’ or ‘Delete’ key press.

The Need – Why did we create this plugin?

The Built.io Flow team wanted to differentiate this inserted data from normal text by tagging the data. After an extensive search, we were unable to find any plugins that converted data within double curly braces into smart tags. We, therefore, undertook the task of creating a plugin that meets this requirement.

The Result

The ‘Smart Tags Input’ plugin now differentiates input data from normal text. It has helped us highlight important data and let users quickly identify the input parameters.

Initially, the inserted parameters looked like this:

With the help of ‘Smart Tags Input’, the inserted parameters now looks more professional and neat:

The Mechanism – How the plugin works

We used the REGEX '(.*?)' to convert the text within double curly braces into tags, by using the <span> element.

The <textarea> element is in front, while the <div> element—that contains <span> elements—is placed behind it. The <textarea> element as well as <div> element are assigned the same look and styling. The opacity settings of these elements have been tweaked so that when focused in, the <textarea> is visible, and when focused out, the <div> element appears with tags.

The Process – How to install this plugin

Download the zip file and extract it into your system. The plugin can be found inside the dist folder, with both the minified and unminified versions.

To use this plugin in your website, add it in the script tag.

<script src="dist/smart-tags-input.js"></script>

Next, initialize the plugin in the JavaScript file, which should be your website’s local file. To do this, first create an instance of SmartTagsInput by passing an element’s ID or the DOM itself. Then use the init() method to initialize the plugin. document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', function(){<br>
var tagInput = new SmartTagsInput("testTagInput");<br>
tagInput.init();<br>
}, false);

Once you complete these steps, the SmartTagsInput component will be available for use.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/smart-tags-a-new-way-to-highlight-tagshttps://www.built.io/blog/smart-tags-a-new-way-to-highlight-tagsSun, 01 May 2016 00:00:00 GMTWorking with content structure is one of the most common—and challenging—tasks for a developer. Are you looking out for the easiest technique to build and customize your content? Here’s where our new content type builder comes in handy. You can now build your content structure in just a few minutes, or rather, a few seconds!

This new release makes working with content easy and flexible! It’s packaged with enhanced features to quickly create content types, add fields using the drag-and-drop functionality, edit field properties in real time, rearrange fields, label them, and do a lot more.

Interesting, isn’t it? So let’s explore the changes with the help of some videos!

Timeless content type creation

When creating a new content type, name it, and select the kind of content type you want—Webpage or Content Block. If you want to add a single entry, select Single; otherwise, select Multiple for multiple entries.

Drag and drop fields

Build powerful content structures that require no technical expertise. Just drag and drop the fields you want from the list available in the right panel. To learn more, read the Content Types documentation.

Real-time field editing

The changes made to your field properties are reflected immediately. Simply click on the selected field to edit its properties, and watch your changes happen in real time. For instance, Built.io Contentstack has the Instructional Value, Placeholder Text, and Help Text fields designed to help content editors manage content. If you edit any of these fields, the UI reflects it simultaneously.

Rearrange fields in no time

To rearrange fields, drag them using the grip icon (dots) appearing on the left side of the field.

Easy categorization

Organize the content types in your stack by adding labels. You can add and nest as many labels as you need for easy access.

In a nutshell…

This new content type builder simplifies the process of content type and field creation. With the new content type builder, you can build a robust and flexible content structure in minutes!

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/the-new-content-type-builder-the-easiest-way-to-create-structureshttps://www.built.io/blog/the-new-content-type-builder-the-easiest-way-to-create-structuresMon, 11 Apr 2016 00:00:00 GMTBuilt.io was founded nine years ago with the goal of integrating and automating the world. Today, we’re excited to announce that our first project, Felicia, is finally available for general use. Felicia is the world’s first fully-autonomous, cloud-less, artificially-intelligent being with the ability to integrate, automate, and control all systems: digital and analog.

Felicia can automatically connect with systems such as your internet, computer, mobile devices, cars, lighting, energy, public transit, and offers a telepathic setting compatible with 98% of the world’s population (this means she can read your thoughts and you don’t need to speak out loud to her). Felicia’s intelligence computes your historical behavioral data as well as real-time thoughts, actions, and even in-actions using a cloud-less distributed system offering instant results at your fingertips.

Makes Your Mornings Less Painful

One of our favorite ways to use Felicia is to brighten your mornings and make it less painful to wake up and easier to get to work on time. Felicia is able to analyze your sleeping pattern, heart rate, breathing pattern, brain activity, the size of the bags under your eyes and other subconscious cues to help build the best morning routine. Before you wake up, she already knows what you need to get you freshened up, whether you need one cup of coffee or two. If you’re low on time and have a hoverboard lying around, she can even bring the coffee to you.

The World’s Best Travel Agent

Because Felicia is fully connected to your internal systems and those around you, she can predict your travel needs even before you’ve fully realized them. As soon as Felicia knows that you need flights or a hotel booked, Felicia will begin scouring the internet and will book the best offers based on your preferences. She knows exactly what you want: your preference for seats, your favorite airlines and preferences regarding layovers. You’ll never have to book a flight yourself again.

Supports An Eco-Friendly Lifestyle

As a citizen of the 21st century, it’s important that we take care of our planet. Whenever possible, we should conserve energy and water and use environmentally friendly best practices. Felicia runs 100% on renewable green energy and has the world’s lightest footprint. She’ll even help you be a greener citizen. For example, Felicia can automatically dim or turn off the lights in rooms where you’re not present, even if your home doesn’t have a smart grid. She’ll simply control the energy currents in those rooms for the desired effect.

A Car-Free Driving Experience

We’ve all heard the virtues of carsharing services like Lyft and Uber. Those of us who don’t need a car can save thousands of dollars a year by using these carsharing services. But sometimes, there isn’t enough availability and we have to pay surge fares. Felicia solves this instantly. Because she’s connected to tens of thousands of other Felicia users in your city and can anticipate everyone’s needs with 100% accuracy, this makes thousands of cars available to you whenever and wherever you need one.

Felicia is able to safely automate any vehicle on the road, even manual cars, it’s like magic. She’ll find a car available nearby that’s free for as long as you need it and pick you up in minutes. She’ll take you directly to your destination so you can utilize the commute time to focus on your work, prepare for your presentation or socializing with your friends. Together we’ll make transportation a better experience for everyone.

Manages Your Finances

Felicia can automate your stock portfolios and help you make the best investments in the market. By computing millions of past and current data, she’s able to make future projections to invest in the best opportunities available. She has successfully beaten industry analysts and has procured an average of 4.7% ROI, beyond any consultants or advisors.

Giving You Some Space

Sometimes, you want to disconnect. Maybe you have a hot date that you want to impress the old-fashioned way. No matter what, Felicia isn’t right in every situation so we’ve made it really simple to turn her off. Simply think “Bye Felicia” and she’ll power off to give you the privacy that you need, until you need her again.

Free For Consumers, Enterprise Licenses Available

Felicia is available free of charge to all consumers. Instead of charging upfront, having a monthly subscription, or serving you ads, Felicia is funded through your profits in your stock investments. When Felicia makes decisions which profits your stocks, she’ll commission a small percentage of the profits earned.

For enterprises looking to enable Felicia in the workplace or behind the scenes, we have enterprise licenses to get you started. If you’re interested, let us know, a consultant will advise you with setup.

Launching Exclusively on Amazon Alexa

Want to automate your world? Simply say “Hey Alexa, ask Felicia to automate my world”. Felicia will ask you a few simple questions: name, age, blood type, etc. and she’ll get to work immediately. Within a week, you won’t remember life without her.

As automation testers, we need to generate customized reports to analyze test cases and categorize them with the proper status on a daily basis. Selenium, by default, does not provide any reporting mechanisms. To generate deep, insightful reports in Selenium, we can use the open source HTML reporting library called ExtentReport. This library is extremely helpful for testers, and is quite easy to use. It generates reports that show the summary of each step and each test case in a toggle view for quick analysis.

Features

By using ExtentReport, you are able to access many reporting features that would otherwise not be available.

Categorizes test cases: We can assign a particular category to a test case depending on our requirements.

Simplifies analysis: Classifies the test based on the different statuses and gives a visual summary, which simplifies analyzing the report.

Allows insertion of logs: Permits insertion of logs in the HTML report, eliminating the need to generate the logfile separately.

Provides a filter option: We can filter the report based on categories and the current status of the test to avoid missing out on any category.

Additional information: Allows the addition of extra listings, such as system information and an author name in the report for its ease of use.

Interactivity: Screenshots and videos with their description can be easily inserted in the report to enhance the report and make it more user friendly.

Parallel execution: Supports parallel execution, that is, it generates a combined report depending on how your tests are structured as per the classes and methods. If you require a single report for run sessions, you can use only one instance of ExtentReports.

Prerequisites

These are the requirements to use the ExtentReport library:

Java

Eclipse

Apache Maven

Selenium JAR

TestNG

Setup

For Java:

Download the JAR file of the ExtentReport library for the respective version of your Java from http://extentreports.com/, and add it to your project library.

For Maven:

Add the following Maven dependency to your POM.xml file and save it. Then update your Maven project. This will automatically download the JAR file from the Maven central repository.

com.relevantcodes extentreports 2.40.2

Example

Here are two demo test cases for generating the HTML report—one with status as pass and one with fail.

Like what you read? Join our community to get more technical information, chances to win prizes, and more: built.io/community

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/customized-html-reporting-in-selenium-web-driverhttps://www.built.io/blog/customized-html-reporting-in-selenium-web-driverWed, 30 Mar 2016 18:30:00 GMTThe Built.io team will be participating in many events in San Francisco, at SXSW, and at Jive World over the next week. If you’re in town, please join us!

Opportunities during the Digital Transformation

Enterprises are realizing that they must innovate or die. Our mission is to equip developers with the tools and technologies to deliver to the Fortune 500 the same, powerful disruption and agility normally associated with startups. Ultimately, it's about democratizing innovation and the Developer Workforce Initiative is the perfect vehicle to amplify our vision and to engage developers across all industries.

USPTO Startup Breakfast Event for Entrepreneurs

The Washington DC Economic Partnership, the Cities of Alexandria & Arlington, and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) invite you to a special USPTO Startup Breakfast Event for entrepreneurs to discuss how intellectual property protection can fit into a startup strategy, and what resources are available to help navigate the process. Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property Michelle Lee will kick off the event, followed by an interactive panel discussion amongst key startup community leaders and U.S. government officials.

Build a Bot – Create an Automated Assistant in 30 Minutes or Less

The average individual uses at least two-dozen software systems every day. Some are tightly integrated (like email and calendar); however, most are completely disconnected. Come learn how to create an automated assistant to help you with 8 daily tasks across all your tools through Built.io Flow and Cisco Spark. Bring your laptops!

Join Gal Oppenheimer, our Senior Product Manager who is responsible for the Built.io product suite. Gal has led mobile and web development for 5 award-winning applications from inception to launch for both enterprise and startup customers including YouTube, Sacramento Kings, and VMware.

Tech Talk: Future of Microservices & iPaaS

As we look to the future of the Jive platform, it is hard to not recognize emerging technologies that will have a foreseeable impact on how developers integrate with Jive. Two such technologies are microservices architecture and iPaaS (Internet Platform as a Service).

In this session, you will hear from Kurt Collins, Director of Technology Evangelism & Parternships for Built.io, share his views about the growing microservice & iPaaS trends and what it means for the future of building scalable Jive integrations in the cloud.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/join-us-in-sf-at-sxsw-and-jive-worldhttps://www.built.io/blog/join-us-in-sf-at-sxsw-and-jive-worldTue, 08 Mar 2016 00:00:00 GMTRashed Talukder wrote up an excellent primer on how to start out using Built.io Flow with Jive; if you haven't read it, stroll on over to read Built.io Flow: Caffeinate Complex Workflows (2 of 3) . Automating complex workflows with Flow makes some of those repetitive tasks a lot easier while opening your eyes to some of the new things you might be able to accomplish. However, rather than rehash what's already been said, let's jump right into our progression by building an integration between Marketo and Jive.

What We're Building

We're going to get a little more complex than the first Flow that was built. However, we're still going to take it a little easy. There may be times when you want to communicate with your Marketo leads and give them an easy call to action in Jive. Let's build something that gets a list of leads from Marketo and then pushes an Inbox Action in Jive to the first lead on the list. This will allow us to get a brief introduction to arrays in Flow as well as show you what it's like to actually integrate multiple services and activities together.

Getting Started

If you haven't already done so (and you're not familiar with Flow), please take a moment and read Built.io Flow: Caffeinate Complex Workflows (2 of 3) . The next thing we're going to need, though, is for you to have a Group List in Marketo you're willing to experiment with. This tutorial won't go over a step-by-step on how to create that. Simply go to Marketo, create a new Group List (I named mine "Jive List"), and put one Lead inside of it. Make sure that lead has the following attributes:

First Name

Last Name

Email Address – Make sure this is an email with an active Jive account associated with it (I used my own).

Once you've created that list, just go to Flow and create a new Flow. Name it whatever you want. And then we're ready to move on to the meat and potatoes.

Get Everything On The Canvas

Now let's get everything we're going to use onto the canvas. I generally prefer to do this just because it helps me organize my thoughts on exactly how the data is going to Flow. For this particular Flow there are five activities you're going to need to get onto the canvas and connect them in the following order:

Marketo -> Get Multiple Lists. While the name of this activity suggests that we're getting more than one list, in point of fact, this activity allows you to search for a particular Group List in Marketo. For example: I am going to search for the list I created named "Jive List". While this activity returns an array, in our particular use case, it will just be returning an array with one element.

Marketo -> Get Leads Using List ID. After performing a search for the list you want, you then need to get the leads out of that particular list.

Marketo -> Get Lead Details. This activity will allow you to get the lead details for a specific lead. For the purposes of simplicity, we're just going to get the lead details for the first lead on the list.

Jive -> Get Person ID by Email. The last activity gave us access to the person's email address. However, before we can push a Jive Inbox Action, we need to know the individual's Person ID. This activity will get us that ID.

Jive -> Create Action. And finally, now we can create an action specifically for the individual we got from the previous activity.

Once you connect them all together, it should look something like this:

Configure The Activities

You can ignore the warning icons you see because we're about to go in and address those right now; one after another.

Marketo -> Get Multiple Lists configuration

The first thing you're going to have to do is set up your Marketo Connection. You can do that by going to edit the settings of the "Get Multiple Lists" activity and selecting the "Marketo Connection" dropdown. If you don't have one already set up that you want to use (as I do in the screenshot below), then go ahead and click on "Add new", type in a name for your new Marketo connection and follow the instructions.

Now that we've got the connection situation straightened out, we want to search for a specific Group List we created in Marketo. I named my Group List "Jive List", so I'm going to enter that name in the "List name" text box:

Once you've done that, we're done setting up this particular activity and we can move on to the next one. Click done and go back to the Flow canvas.

Marketo -> Get Leads Using List ID

Now go ahead and edit the next activity in the chain: Get Leads Using List ID. Now this is where arrays start to come into play. We're not going to do iteration this time around (although this is possible with Flow). Instead, let's just focus on getting the first Group List returned by the "Get Multiple Lists" activity we just finished configuring. First, make sure to choose the Marketo connection you created in step one from the "Marketo Connection" dropdown. Then click on the green [+] symbol next to {{$a0.result}} array and that will give you an idea of all of the objects available to you in each element of the returned array.This activity is asking us to give it a List ID so we can get the leads from that particular list. Because we want to get the leads from the first list in the array, we want to put {{$a0.result[0].id}} in the "List ID" text box as is shown below. That will get us the ID of the first Group List returned in the array.

Now that you're done configuring this activity, let's move on to the next one.

Marketo -> Get Lead Details

This is the last Marketo activity we have to configure. Again, make sure to choose your Marketo connection. This activity will get us the details for a specific lead in Marketo. The objective of the last activity was to get us the Lead ID we needed here. The objective of this activity is to get the name and email address of the Lead we're going to be contacting in Jive. So, similar to what we did before with the array of Group Lists returned, we're going to just get the first lead from the "Get Leads Using List ID" activity; that's the lead we want the details for. Just enter {{$a1.result[0].id}} in the "Lead ID" field and we're good to go.

Once we're done here, we can move on to the configure the first Jive activity.

Jive -> Get Person ID by Email

First things first: set up your Jive connection. If you've already gone through the first tutorial in this series, then you should already have a connection set up. If you haven't gone through that tutorial, then you can just choose "Add new" from the "Jive Connection" drop-down, choose a name for your new Jive connection, and follow the resulting instructions.This activity is going to allow us to get a Jive Person ID given a particular email address. We would have gotten that email address from the previous activity: "Get Lead Details". So now all we have to do is grab the email from the returned objects in that activity and put it in the "Email" field.

Jive -> Create Action

This is the last activity that needs to be configured. As before, first set up your Jive connection by selecting your Jive connection from the drop-down.Then let's go ahead and just fill out the first three text boxes as seen below. Since we pulled the Jive user's information from the "Get Person ID by Email" activity, we can put their name in the "Title" text box.

Try putting the following in the "Title" text box: {{$a3.name}}: An Awesome Message From Our Marketo! (Note: we could have also pulled similar information from the "Get Lead Details" activity.)

Then go ahead and write some content in the "Content" text box. I chose to write: I'm sending you something pretty awesome.

And last, but not least, make sure to put a Person URI in the next text box: https://<jive_url>/api/core/v3/people/{{$a13.id}}. In this case, we're getting the Person ID from the "Get Person ID by Email" activity to make sure we have a complete Person URI.

Let's Run It, Already!

We're done. There's nothing more to do but see if this thing works. So once you're done editing the "Create Action" activity, just head back to the canvas and hit the "Test" button in the top right-hand corner. That should execute the Flow.

What's Next?

For the next and final iteration, we'll be completing the iteration to a fulfill a common use-case; initiating a Flow through a trigger, initiating another flow from within a flow, and taking a user's action response and calling another Flow.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/built-io-flow-caffeinate-complex-workflowshttps://www.built.io/blog/built-io-flow-caffeinate-complex-workflowsThu, 25 Feb 2016 00:00:00 GMTFor enterprises, time is more precious than money. Hence, we bring you a host of activities that integrate your favorite time-saving apps with just about any web service. Let’s look at what’s new and exciting this week:

Marketo: Connect with your leads faster than ever. New activities allow you to integrate Marketo with apps like Pipedrive, MailChimp, Typeform, etc. and automate marketing campaigns in a jiffy. Here’s a quick look at what Marketo activities can do for you.

USgeocoder: The new USgeocoder activity lets you fetch latitude and longitude details of any place in the US, and send data to any web application/service of your choice. Read more about how USgeocoder activities work.

Slack: The new set of activities lets you create channels, invite users, post messages, and fetch details from just about anywhere in the world. Learn more about Slack integration here.

In addition to these new activities, we have introduced ‘JSON Parse’. This developer-friendly activity helps you convert JavaScript strings into JSON objects. We have also added several new activities for Import.io.

We’d love to hear from you what other integrations you’d like us to add! Leave a comment below or send us an email at: support-flow@built.io.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/it-s-flow-timehttps://www.built.io/blog/it-s-flow-timeThu, 11 Feb 2016 00:00:00 GMTWhere’s the fun if you have to run flows manually every time? Introducing ‘Triggers’ — the ultimate automation upgrade that allows you to kick off a flow automatically whenever an event of interest occurs. Now you can sit back, relax, and watch Built.io Flow do all the work for you.

Zoho Projects: Tired of chasing bugs on Zoho? Use our new trigger that automatically fetches details of a bug or assigns it to your colleague as soon as it is created.

Cisco Spark: Trigger a host of actions when a new message is posted to a particular room in Cisco Spark.

Drip: Trigger flows when you add/delete subscribers, users subscribe/unsubscribe to campaigns, or any changes are made to custom fields.

JIRA: No more delays in your projects. Our new set of JIRA triggers lets you run flows automatically whenever a new user, project or issue is created within your JIRA account.

App.net: Micro-blogging made easy. As soon as you create a new post, an associated flow is triggered and Built.io Flow performs all the predetermined actions.

We’d love to hear what other integrations you’d like us to add! Leave a comment below or send us an email at: support-flow@built.io.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/automation-finally-with-zero-clickshttps://www.built.io/blog/automation-finally-with-zero-clicksThu, 11 Feb 2016 00:00:00 GMTWe first introduced Built.io Backend as “the no bullshit backend for enterprise”, and I still stand by that motto. But what do I mean when I say “no bullshit”? For me, it’s encouraging companies to look past the marketing, past the Powerpoint slides and the slick website. What good are shiny new features if they don’t work as expected? I take the “no BS” approach very personal and enforce it across our entire team: we have always and will always be straightforward with our customers and partners.

What this means from a product perspective, is that we only build features if they make sense for users of the product – mobile app developers, in the case of Built.io Backend. For features that shouldn’t be part of MBaaS, I always advocate for solutions that integrate with industry leaders. Marketing might call this best-of-breed but for me, at an architectural level, it’s paramount not to turn any of our products into bloatware.

Is MBaaS Dead?

I’ve seen a lot of people question whether there’s a future for MBaaS after Parse’s announcement last week. As a technologist having been directly involved building hundreds of mobile applications, the benefits of MBaaS are unquestionable to me: it’s faster and easier to build your application and you don’t waste time reinventing the wheel. Think about it: You have an amazing app idea and start pitching it to VCs. When they ask you what you’re going to use the money for, you probably wouldn’t want to respond with: “Oh, 70% is going towards building out a backend from scratch.” Unfortunately, by making MBaaS at least temporarily “free”, Parse planted the misconception that there is no dollar value or cost associated with the service. If something seems too good to be true, it usually is.

John Ruskin provided some valuable insight on this years before any of us thought about SaaS or cloud computing: “It's unwise to pay too much, but it's worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money - that's all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot - it can't be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better.”

While the majority of applications on Parse were running at no cost to developers, there were significant costs to Facebook to support the infrastructure. Given that Facebook was attracting a sizable developer community with the freemium model, perhaps they believed they could justify the investment by employing the 95:5 rule for it’s Parse business. As we’ve seen with countless companies, the freemium model isn’t typically viable. For MBaaS, paying customers are likely enterprise companies who consider security, reliability, and control to be critical. Letting Facebook manage your customer data becomes a non starter for most enterprises. This leaves revenue off the table for Parse.

As CTO, it’s important that I maintain control of our technology and minimize risks. Built.io depends on the cloud for a wide variety of software and services services such as Gmail, Zoho, Amazon Web Services, GitHub, Pingdom, etc. However, we control as much of the core technology in our products as possible to minimize our dependencies and risks.

If I were building out my mobile strategy from the ground up today, I’d set up my own MBaaS installation in my own VPC on AWS or Microsoft Azure. Yeah, I’d be paying hosting fees, but I’d know what it takes to run and maintain my apps over time. This might sound like an endorsement for Parse’s open sourced solution or other open source MBaaS solutions, but I don’t think that approach is viable in the long-run. Open source platforms are typically successful when they are supported, maintained, and controlled by a for-profit company (i.e. Red Hat, Docker, Elastic). Without anyone owning a project for the long-term, it is likely to fall into disarray over time.

To give companies this flexibility, we offer a dedicated instance of Built.io Backend. Install Built.io Backend into your own environment so you manage and control the future of your apps. If you need any help, we can help you setup your installation and have a world-class DevOps team that’s managed environments for large enterprises such as VMware and EMC. Let’s chat if this is something you’d be interested in.

Since Parse’s announcement on Thursday, we’ve seen a 10x increase in inquires about Built.io Backend. Everyone focuses on the same question: “How much does Built.io Backend cost?”, but they really should be asking “Is Built.io Backend right for me?” Picking a new backend is not a decision you should make lightly. Make sure to research options properly and talk to the right people before beginning any migration. Think of it as a risk vs. reward exercise considering factors such as budget, time-to-market, number of apps, scalability and growth trajectory.

Who should be using Built.io Backend?

Built.io Backend is a great fit for:

Enterprises or organizations running multiple apps.

Agencies that deliver multiple apps for multiple clients.

Apps that are likely to scale and grow to millions of users over time.

Developers that want to get to market fast that have budget to support their backend infrastructure.

Built.io Backend however is not a good fit for:

Single apps with no plan to scale or grow your user base significantly.

Developers or companies who are looking for a free Parse replacement.

How we price Built.io Backend

We’ve priced Built.io Backend to be profitable. For a Silicon Valley company, that’s a pretty bold statement. We’ve been around for 9 years and are entirely customer funded. We’ve focused on growing from our own profitability and have not become dependent on investors who might demand unfeasible returns. We’re in it for the long-haul and plan to continue growing what has proven itself as a sustainable business.

Our company was founded by a team that understands enterprise needs and have built our products to address those needs. For enterprises, proper budgeting is important so knowing up front how much you’ll pay for an annual license is more important than paying for exactly what you need without the predictability. We’ve priced our products in that manner. After an initial scoping call, we provide a quote that’ll cover your needs for a year so you know exactly what you need to power your app.

There’s a lot of vendor buzz right now so be wary of heavily discounted promotions. Think about it, if Parse with its massive developer community and all of Facebook’s muscle behind it couldn’t make MBaaS financially interesting enough for them to keep the service, it just spells trouble to go with an offering that offers the same service at a bigger discount. Remember, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. So here’s our “no BS” offer for Parse customers:

Existing Parse customers can use Dedicated Built.io Backend or our managed platform starting at $1,499/month. This isn’t dirt cheap but it’s still only a fraction of the cost compared to building the technology and team to do this yourself. And it’s sustainable – no one wants you to have to shop for another backend next year. If you’re interested in learning more, contact us.

What’s next for Built.io Backend?

We are strong believers that a dedicated instance of a supported MBaaS solution is the way to go. This provides you with full control over the servers to scale them, manage your data, and provide the privacy controls you require. This also gives you the benefits of accelerating app development with a supported MBaaS without the dependency of an external SaaS service and the associated risks with the service being discontinued.

The future of Built.io Backend is a pluggable architecture (scroll to the last section of the article). The core of the backend becomes the database as a service with data models, ACLs, user management and app management, with SDKs. Everything else is pluggable. This architecture allows you to pick and choose exactly the features you want from any vendor – proprietary or open source – to perfectly suit your needs. We believe this will combine the power and simplicity of running an MBaaS with the flexibility enterprises need to run their business. Want to learn more? We’d love to talk to you.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/the-no-bullshit-take-on-mbaas-and-our-offer-to-the-parse-communityhttps://www.built.io/blog/the-no-bullshit-take-on-mbaas-and-our-offer-to-the-parse-communityWed, 03 Feb 2016 00:00:00 GMTFor this week's #tbt, we are literally throwing it back to our full-size basketball hoop demonstration at Integrate 2015. Here are a few of our favorite moments with Leidos, Tropo, API Evangelist Kin Lane, the Sacramento Kings and of course DOT CTO Maria Roat!

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/happy-throwback-thursdayhttps://www.built.io/blog/happy-throwback-thursdayThu, 28 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMTWe know that productivity matters. Our latest set of powerful activities are all about helping you get things done faster, while minimizing the demand on your time and attention. Let’s look at what’s new and exciting:

Import.io: Extract data with Import.io and instantly push it to over 100 web applications and cloud services. The new activities help you get Import.io’s connectors, history, snapshots, and test results. Learn more about our Import.io integration here.

JIRA: Manage projects like a pro! Built.io Flow now integrates powerful project management and bug tracking capabilities to give you greater control over your projects.

Initial State: Tap into data analytics for the Internet of Things. Our new activities for Initial State let you create data buckets and send event data to any of the available web services in Built.io Flow. Read more about how Initial State activities work.

In addition to these new activities, we are also introducing new developer-friendly activities to make your coding work easier. ‘JSON Stringify’ helps you convert JavaScript objects into JSON strings, while ‘Logger’ displays your flow’s output directly in logs.

We’d love to hear what other integrations and features you’d like us to add. Leave a comment below or send us an email at: support-flow@built.io.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/twice-as-fast-with-half-the-efforthttps://www.built.io/blog/twice-as-fast-with-half-the-effortMon, 25 Jan 2016 18:30:00 GMTHappy New Year!! This year, let us make your life a little (or a lot!) easier with Built.io Flow. We just launched a host of new activities that allow you to automate routine tasks and connect your most valuable systems. Here are the highlights of this week’s launch:

Mixpanel: Mobile analytics at your fingertips. The new activities allow you to create/delete annotations and fetch data on events, funnels, and annotations. Read our documentation on Mixpanel.

Pinterest: Ever wish you could automatically pin images from Dropbox to Pinterest? Well, with Built.io Flow, now that’s a walk in the park. The new Pinterest activities allow you to create/search/delete boards and pins, get board and user data and push this data to other applications. Learn more here.

Zendesk: Managing your favorite customer support software just got easier with Zendesk activities that allow you to quickly create/delete users, organizations, tickets, or sync your Zendesk data with any web application. Read more about how Zendesk activities work.

Other services launched this week include Pusher and Tropo. Start using all of these services right away in Built.io Flow.

IP Whitelists for Built.io Flow

Built.io Flow connects with most third-party services easily and instantly. However, in some cases, you may need our servers to access resources that lie behind a protective firewall. We now have specific IP addresses set aside for whitelisting purposes in Built.io Flow; learn more in our documentation.

We’d love to hear from you what other integrations you’d like us to add! Leave a comment below or send us an email at: support-flow@built.io.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/go-with-the-flowhttps://www.built.io/blog/go-with-the-flowTue, 19 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMTThis week, we launched over one hundred (!) new activities – basically, integrations with today’s most popular applications. Here are some of the highlights:

Fitbit: Push your Fitbit fitness tracking devices to the limit. You can push all your stored data (activities, daily/weekly goals, heart rate/blood pressure figures, and so on) to any other application in a jiffy. Here’s a quick look at what Fitbit activities can do for you.

Drip: Connect with your leads faster than ever. New activities allow you to integrate Drip with apps like Pipedrive, MailChimp, Typeform, etc. and automate marketing campaign and CRM workflows. Get started integrating Drip.

Jive: These new activities make it easy to create objects (groups, projects, spaces, etc.) in Jive and pull data into other services. See what Jive has to say about this and read more about how Jive activities work.

We’d love to hear from you what other integrations you’d like us to add! Leave a comment below or send us an email at: support-flow@built.io.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/product-updates-the-more-you-know-the-more-you-flowhttps://www.built.io/blog/product-updates-the-more-you-know-the-more-you-flowTue, 05 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMTBefore we delve into the details of automating testing in Safari, it’s important to remember the fundamental difference between a (native) mobile applications, a mobile web application, and a hybrid mobile application:

Native mobile apps run directly on the mobile device’s operating system. Mobile web apps are accessed using a mobile browser. Hybrid apps have a wrapper around a "webview" – a native control that enables interaction with web content.

Safari Challenges

Like Chrome, Safari is based on the WebKit rendering engine and comes with WebInspector pre-installed. It does not offer extensive browser automation but it is important for us to identify issues such as Language-level Consistency, Safari Crashes, etc. One potential issue we have seen is providing a uniform experience across multiple versions of an operating system on various devices. The app must be verified for all of the different environments that it will be deployed on to ensure uniformity.

Apple has been upgrading WebKit, an open source browser engine, to speed up Safari’s JavaScript processing in the OS X versions.

To set up test automation WebKit for Safari, follow these instructions:

Setup

Have the ios-webkit-debug-proxy installed.

brew install ios-webkit-debug-proxy

Running and listening on port 27753, open the terminal and run the following command:

Once successfully configured and when the Safari launcher is built, start the server.

$ node /lib/server/main.js -U <UDID>

Testing iOS Hybrid Apps on Real Devices using node.js

First, ensure that developer mode is active in your Safari preferences so that the remote debugger port may open. From here, we can perform a normal WebDriver test, and use Appium as the Selenium server with a special set of desired capabilities.

Appium will assume that any command generated within this session is intended for automating information for the web view, rather than the native portion of the app. For example, if you run getElementsByTagName, it will operate on the DOM of the web view, rather than return UIAElements.

Using Appium and node.js in this step-by-step process in conjunction with other basic concepts, you will be able to automate mobile Safari.

Like what you read? Join our community to get more technical information, chances to win prizes, and more: built.io/community

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/mobile-safari-test-automation-with-appiumhttps://www.built.io/blog/mobile-safari-test-automation-with-appiumTue, 22 Dec 2015 00:00:00 GMTWe are excited to announce that Built.io has been named an Innovator in Mobile by Aragon Research and an Aragon Research Hot Vendor! Built.io was selected as one of the top ten companies pushing the boundaries in the mobile space.

This award acknowledges our innovative approach to the Internet of APIs and the next generation of integration. Our latest product, Built.io Flow enables companies to develop deep and agile integrations, connecting their systems and APIs to the rapidly expanding Internet of Things. Neha Sampat, CEO of Built.io is energized by the response to Flow just 85 days after launching, “I’ve been blown away by the interest we’ve seen in the platform every prospect we talk to has an integration challenge or wants to try something cutting edge in IoT.”

As we approach the new year, we will continue developing and delivering the best integration and backend platforms for enterprise development.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/built-io-named-an-aragon-hot-vendor-and-innovator-in-mobilehttps://www.built.io/blog/built-io-named-an-aragon-hot-vendor-and-innovator-in-mobileMon, 14 Dec 2015 00:00:00 GMTToday, Cisco unveiled its new Spark API at the annual Cisco Collaboration Summit in San Francisco. Spark is a collaboration platform that allows teams to leverage the newly released Spark APIs to build, expand, and customize their communication system.

Together with Cisco, Built.io created the event’s marquee demo for conference attendees to experience the power of the Cisco Spark APIs up close.

Built.io Flow makes the Cisco APIs relevant and meaningful for business users and developers alike. In other words, you don’t actually need to be a developer to use the Cisco Spark APIs. In fact, a key requirement for this event was to allow a non-technical executive to walk up, create a workflow and experience the power of the Cisco Spark APIs – all in under 60 seconds. With Built.io Flow, you can now connect Spark to all the other apps you use in a matter of minutes and automate recurring tasks to make your everyday life and work more efficient.

Built.io Flow was also selected as the technology partner for Cisco’s Build-an-App competition at the event. Attendees were able to participate in Cisco’s Build-an-App competition to unlock the potential of Cisco Spark by easily integrating it into your business operations using Built.io Flow!

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/built-io-sparks-excitement-at-cisco-collaboration-summithttps://www.built.io/blog/built-io-sparks-excitement-at-cisco-collaboration-summitThu, 10 Dec 2015 00:00:00 GMTOn December 9th, 2015 you can join the world's first and largest virtual conference and expo on the Internet of Things, IoT Slam 2015! IoT Slam features the most compelling topics in IoT, featuring highly sought after speakers, delivering best practice all under one “cloud delivered event”.

One essential ingredient for IoT to succeed with enterprises is the ubiquity and use of APIs – application programming interfaces – which allows developers to compose applications and use cases that can seamlessly communicate across systems, assemble best-in-class capabilities and create unprecedented experiences for customers and employees alike. The “Internet of APIs” is rapidly becoming the fabric that powers the most significant IoT use cases for enterprises.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/upcoming-webinar-microservices-cloud-integration-and-the-internet-of-apishttps://www.built.io/blog/upcoming-webinar-microservices-cloud-integration-and-the-internet-of-apisTue, 08 Dec 2015 00:00:00 GMTIn our last post, we saw how to efficiently scale down EC2 instances using a combination of different AWS services: Lambda, CloudWatch and SNS.

The following is a more feasible (since this approach allows us to scale down gradually, the earlier method involved an abrupt scale down action) method to scale down EC2 instances gradually:

Steps:

Scale down action is triggered from a CloudWatch alarm.

An instance is marked for termination.

Lifecycle hook associated with that auto-scaling group causes instance to begin Terminating: Wait state, and sends out notification to corresponding SNS topic.

Lambda function is invoked once notification is received on SNS topic.

From lambda, make a POST call to stop/suspend all required processes gracefully.

Check suspend status with GET call.

Once suspend status is true, notify the lifecycle hook that instance can be safely terminated.

These steps are repeated by Cloudwatch alert after every check carried out on specific intervals, provided the specified threshold remains low in order for scaling down to continue. Thus, scaling down by one instance at a time.

Let’s look at each step in more detail:

Create a lifecycle hook

Create IAM role for lifecycle hook

The lifecycle hook needs an IAM role to be associated with it. It can be created by following steps outlined in this article.

Grant required IAM permissions

The IAM user whose keys will be used for creating lifecycle hook through AWS CLI or API, needs to have iam:PassRole action allowed for source ARN of the role created in above step.

Also, the IAM role associated with lambda functions needs to have permission for autoscaling:CompleteLifecycleAction.

Create lifecycle hook using AWS CLI

Replace the highlighted values with your values and run following command using AWS CLI:

Create separate CloudWatch alerts

Create separate CloudWatch alerts for scaling out and for scaling in. While scaling out, the alert will have a threshold such as, if value ≥ threshold, then trigger an alert. Similarly, while scaling in, the alert will be triggered if value ≤ threshold.

Having two separate alerts allows us to have +infinity and -infinity in our auto-scaling policies. If both actions are specified in single alert, then neither is available, which results in improper scaling actions.

Modification to lambda functions

The biggest advantage of a lifecycle hook is, our lambda functions become lightweight. Instance selection for termination can be removed, as lambda is invoked from SNS topic which is notified when an instance is being terminated.

The rest of the logic remains the same, except at the end, an instance is not terminated by lambda function itself, instead the lambda function just notifies the lifecycle hook to continue with the termination process.

Bonus Point

With this approach, both scaling out and in actions are managed by auto-scaling and CloudWatch. This enables us to specify which termination policy to use while scaling in.

‘closest-to-instance-hour’ - this termination policy will terminate the instances which are close to their hourly charging pulse, which results in economical scale-in action.

How does it work?

We’ve updated the PoC with this approach implemented; hope you enjoy it!

We would love to hear your own best practices, tips and tricks in the comments.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/method-2-efficiently-scale-down-ec2-instances-using-aws-lambda-cloudwatch-and-snshttps://www.built.io/blog/method-2-efficiently-scale-down-ec2-instances-using-aws-lambda-cloudwatch-and-snsThu, 03 Dec 2015 00:00:00 GMTThe gameday experience extends far beyond four action-packed quarters, it starts the moment fans make their way to the stadium and does not end until they return home. For most fans, watching a live game is a visceral experience. The stadium is a key contributor to the live game experience because it provides an energizing homebase for fans to interact with their favorite team. Traditional stadiums, arguably, do not provide the best settings to watch a game because of limited visibility, lack of access to dynamic commentary and, frankly, the beer is not as handy as it is at home. Stadiums draw fans not solely because of the services, but also to deliver an unparalleled experience.

By pairing the traditional stadium experience with the latest technologies, stadiums are able to optimize opportunities to please their fans. Beacons are one such example and play a significant role in making the connected stadium a reality. Beacons use Low Energy Bluetooth to connect with fans, allowing for micro-location services such as indoor navigation and in-seat ordering. Tapping into technology allows stadiums to deliver information and services to the right people at the right time.

As stadiums incorporate more and more technology (both hardware and software) into their DNA, the various services must be able to connect and integrate with each other seamlessly, in order to provide a smooth and coherent experience to the end user. For a mobile app, this means augmenting the gameday experience and not becoming a distraction that takes away from the action on the court or field.

For example, the audience at a basketball game could participate in a survey in between quarters; or be provided with giveaways based on how much their section is cheering. The next night, the same app can provide live lyrics to a song an artist is performing in the stadium. The ability to tailor content and functionality in realtime is an essential ingredient to enabling these scenarios.

Together with the integration of best-of-breed services, a new generation of smart, connected stadiums and arenas can provide dynamic, interactive experiences to each and every fan, personalized for every event. Built.io is proud to be working with some of the most innovative sports franchises in the world to bring to life this new generation of experiences for visitors and fans.

Contact us to find out more about our solutions for tomorrow’s Connected Stadium.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/the-internet-of-apis-the-connected-stadiumhttps://www.built.io/blog/the-internet-of-apis-the-connected-stadiumTue, 10 Nov 2015 00:00:00 GMTThe Built.io team was out in full force at the Integrate 2015 Conference last week, demonstrating how Built.io Flow brings the IoT and the Internet of APIs to life. In a custom built IoT Pavilion, our team showcased use cases for the Connected Arena, Connected Business, Connected Home, and Connected Vehicle with a series of hands-on, interactive demos. In addition to being called out as the most fun booth during the conference expo, the Built.io team also won the coveted award for Best Internet of Things Integration Technology for Built.io Flow.

Built.io Flow allows businesses to automate recurring tasks, eliminate manual and mundane processes and increase efficiency. One of the demos on the showfloor utilized Tropo, Twilio, Salesforce, and beacons to present a Connected Retail use-case.

The Connected Arena station boasted a full-size basketball hoop demonstration. Here's Maria Roat, CTO at U.S. Department of Transportation flawlessly making a shot on the connected hoop, which turns the connected Philips Hue lights on the backboard to purple, and shares an instant replay of her winning shot on Twitter!

Here's an instant replay of the same flow triggered by Slamson, the mascot of the Sacramento Kings:

It was no accident that Slamson made a rousing guest appearance. The NBA’s Sacramento Kings are assembling best-in-class technology in preparation of the unveiling of their new arena, billed as the most connected and smartest arena on the planet. They needed a technology platform that was both robust and nimble enough to seamlessly integrate cutting edge hardware and software components and to significantly enhance the fan experience. They chose Built.io Flow!

The Integrate Conference IoT Summit Closing Keynote featured the USDOT's Maria Roat, as well as Matt Eclavea, Sacramento Kings Vice President of Technology, and Andrew Nicholson, Sacramento Kings Senior Director of Digital – all alongside Built.io CEO Neha Sampat and COO Matthew Baier. The keynote covered how the Internet of Things will impact transportation infrastructure in the future, as well as how integration technology now sits at the center of a whole new generation of connected experiences.

We were honored to have Kin Lane host a couple of “Ask the API Evangelist” sessions at the Built.io Pavilion. Those developers lucky enough to catch Kin live were able to discuss their burning issues and gain valuable insights from one of the industry’s most esteemed authorities on APIs.

Missed all the incredible action at Integrate? Catch us next at the API Strategy & Practice Conference in Austin, where our CEO will deliver the headline keynote this November.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/built-io-flow-democratizes-integration-at-integrate-2015https://www.built.io/blog/built-io-flow-democratizes-integration-at-integrate-2015Wed, 07 Oct 2015 00:00:00 GMTWithin Amazon Web Services, EC2 instances can be scaled up easilybased on various metrics using auto-scaling. You can use auto-scaling to scale down instances. However, sometimes while performing the scale down operation it is necessary to perform mandatory operations on the instance before bringing it down. In that case, it is not possible or advisable to simply use the auto-scaling service directly to scale down the instances.

One solution is to create a custom API from the application to stop all required processes gracefully and then proceed for termination.

Steps:

Detect the instance to be scaled-down

Make a POST call to stop/suspend all required processes gracefully

Check suspend status with GET call

Once suspend status is true, terminate the instance from auto-scaling group

With the help of auto-scaling, lambda, Cloudwatch monitoring, and SNS, all of these steps can be completely automated. Let’s proceed with the steps one by one:

Detect the instance

While detecting the instance from the auto-scaling group for termination, look for the availability zone that has a higher number of instances and select an instance from it. If by mistake an incorrect instance is selected for termination, then the algorithm designed for the auto-scaling service restructures the instances in the auto-scaling group and equally divides them into their associated availability zones. Let’s look at an example:

Availability zone 1 is called as az-1 and Availability zone 2 is called as az-2.

If az-1 has two instances and az-2 has one instance, then the instance from az-1 should be selected, since it has a higher number of instances. By mistake, if an instance from az-2 is selected for termination, then the following undesired activity happens:

Availability zone - Number of instances

az-1 - 2

az-2 - 0

(1 instances terminated from az-2)

az-1 - 1

az-2 - 1

(Auto-scaling terminates an instance from az-1 and launches a new one in az-2 in order to maintain balance between the availability zones)

The above condition terminated a healthy instance that we did not want to delete along with the instance we selected and launches an altogether new instance.

POST call to suspend processes

A public endpoint for this API is necessary to suspend processes on the instances. This API should access an authentication key and may be an internal IP for the instance to be suspended. By doing this, we can keep the instances inside the private subnet of VPC, and suspend them as needed through the public endpoint.

Check suspend status with GET call

Once the suspend process is initiated, we will need to check its progress. In the proof of concept, we have two AWS lambda functions because of the maximum 60 second execution time restriction for lambda functions. The first lambda function determines the instance to be downscaled, and makes a POST call for suspension, and the second lambda function checks if the suspend status is true then proceeds to instance termination, otherwise the lambda function revokes itself again to check suspend status through GET call.

Terminate the instance

Once the instance is suspended, an API becomes available to terminate the instance directly from the auto-scaling group and adjusts the number of desired instances accordingly. Please note, this termination option is different from the detach option. In the detach option, the instance is removed from the corresponding auto-scaling group, however the instance still runs unless you stop or terminate it.

Final check

After the instance is terminated, check whether the remaining instances running are greater than the minimum number of instances specified in the respective auto-scaling group. If this number is greater, then repeat the process to scale down all the additional instances launched during high traffic.

How does it work?

We took inspiration from this great article, so this blog post can be considered an extended version for reference. Here is a PoC we have implemented; hope you enjoy it!

A new, more feasible method is outlined in our latest post about scaling down!

We would love to hear your own best practices, tips and tricks in the comments.

Featured in one of the hottest arenas of Dreamforce, the IoT Zone in Moscone Center West, members of the Built.io team interacted with thousands of visitors, demonstrating how easy it is to integrate disparate systems with Built.io Flow’s drag-and-drop user interface. Attendees learned how to connect Salesforcein seconds to any third-party system, be it a cloud-based service like Twilio, a backend Oracle system behind the firewall, a mobile app, or a connected device such as a Philips Hue lightbulb.

Built.io Developer Evangelist, Kurt Collins, led several workshops demonstrating how to build a connected retail solution using Built.io Flow and Salesforce. By combining customer information stored in the CRM with realtime information about shopper location and behavior, retailers are able to better serve their customers by offering targeted promotions and on-demand, in-store services that relate to their specific preferences. Conversely, by documenting more accurate and immediate details about shoppers in the store, retailers enable greater retention rates as well as increased opportunities of engagement.

The power of Built.io Flow was exhibited to passers-by with an integration between Twitter and Philips Hue Lightbulbs. Anyone with a Twitter account was able to change the color of Hue lightbulbs by tweeting the desired color of the light using a particular hashtag. Here’s an example and the resulting awesome purple hue:

After

Missed us at Dreamforce? Catch us at an Integrate 2015 to see it all in action.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/built-io-flow-makes-big-dreams-come-true-at-dreamforcehttps://www.built.io/blog/built-io-flow-makes-big-dreams-come-true-at-dreamforceTue, 22 Sep 2015 00:00:00 GMTFor the last eight years, we’ve made it our mission to democratize integration. We believe that enterprise integration across software and the Internet of Things (IoT) should be attainable for any organization. With today’s release of Built.io Flow, any developer – and even non-developers – can now easily connect software, backend systems, mobile apps, sensors and devices using simple drag and drop.

Until now, integrating systems typically took many months, big budgets, heavy infrastructure and an army of integration experts. Built.io Flow operates entirely in the cloud – from design to deployment – without requiring setup, installation or configuration of local software components. Now you can quickly create workflows that make you and your business more efficient in a matter of minutes. Even build complex integrations, connecting to legacy backend systems through Built.io Flow’s Enterprise Gateway feature.

Anything with a digital heartbeat and an API can now participate in automating business processes, boost the capabilities of mobile applications and enable faster innovation across your business.

The NBA’s Sacramento Kings, for example, are assembling best-in-class technology in preparation of the unveiling of their new arena, billed as the smartest building on the planet. They chose Built.io Flow to seamlessly integrate cutting edge hardware and software components and to significantly enhance the fan experience.

With the release of Built.io Flow alongside our mobile Backend-as-a-Service (mBaaS), Aragon Research was also quick to name Built.io a "2015 Hot Vendor." See what all the excitement is about and be part of one of the most ambitious integration initiatives of our time.

Adding a Markdown Editor

You can add one or more Markdown editors to new, as well as existing forms.

Add a new form or edit an existing one to enter the Form Editor mode. In the Form Editor mode, simply add a new field with Markdown as its data type.

Save your changes and this field will now be available when creating or editing an entry associated with this form.

Adding Content in Markdown

Add text with the appropriate annotations. We have also included a toolbar with buttons for the most common annotations.

Click the expanding arrows button to use the Markdown editor in the distraction-free, fullscreen mode. You can also view a preview of your content with just a click. When adding content to the Markdown editor, simply click the preview button to view how your content will look in HTML.

As always, if you have any questions or run into any issues, reach out to us using the chat icon after signing into Built.io Contentstack or email our support team at support-contentstack@built.io.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/introducing-markdown-in-built-io-contentstackhttps://www.built.io/blog/introducing-markdown-in-built-io-contentstackWed, 09 Sep 2015 00:00:00 GMTIdentity and Access Management (IAM) is a system Amazon uses to manage access to various Amazon Web Services (AWS) services and resources. Effective usage of IAM can allow AWS administrators to restrict users to a specific region or resource for a specific service.

What is ARN?

Amazon Resource Name (ARN) uniquely identifies AWS resources. Each AWS resource, whether it is an EC2 instance, an EBS volume or an Auto-Scaling group, has an ARN associated with it. Most of AWS services support resource-level permissions based on ARNs in IAM policies. You can permit different actions, like stopping, starting or terminating specific EC2 instances.

IAM Policies

An IAM policy document is a JSON object. Let’s take a look at an actual policy document:

Action: This represents the number of actions either allowed or denied.

Condition: This is the section in the above policy that checks for all EC2 instances whose name is “my-instance” and grants the terminate action for them.
All EC2 instances in an auto-scaling group can be configured to have the same “Name” tag.
This condition block is very useful, if you want to grant permissions for all instances of an auto-scaling group.

Resource: This is ARN, which in the above example refers to all EC2 instances of US-East-1 region of AWS account with ID 0123456789.

IAM Roles

One way to deal with IAM permissions is to create an IAM user, create IAM policy with the necessary permissions, and then attach that IAM policy to the IAM user. This IAM user has an access key and secret key which are used to access different services.

For security reasons, if these access keys are exposed, then you should immediately recreate them. The IAM role is a solution to this issue. It is directly assigned to an EC2 instance and the necessary permissions are mentioned in that IAM role. This means that all required resources and services are accessible only from that EC2 instance. This entirely removes the need to share keys.

Having an IAM role is becoming the norm for all newly released AWS services like lambda and codedeploy.

I hope this post was useful and informative. We would love to hear your best practices, tips and tricks in the comments.

Design your page around your content or design your content around your page? For larger enterprise companies with mountains of content, designing pages around content is ideal. On the other hand, a startup without as much content can design content around the page. At Built.io, we've seen both methods work successfully for enterprise firms and startups alike. In my experience, most designers prefer to see the content upfront in order to deliver designs that match their client’s needs.

Let’s say you have a marketing campaign page for your product and the primary objective is to drive sign-ups. If the design team didn’t have access to your copy first, they may not have prioritized the call to action properly on the page.

Responsive design – a must-have

The days of building a non-responsive website are over. With so much of the market shifting toward mobile, tablets and other Internet of Things (IoT) devices, having a non-responsive site won’t cut it. Google is fully aware of this and has started grading your site's SEO based on mobile friendliness. Before planning your redesign or first launch, responsive design and development should be a requirement, not a question.

Managing content across all channels

Whether it’s a tiny screen like on the Apple Watch or a Jumbotron at a sports event, you’ll need your content to look perfect. Content delivery via the JSON format is the future because it’s lightweight and has become the de facto standard for mobile app content delivery. It allows content to be easily optimized for different end points, ranging from smartphones to emerging IoT form factors. Recognizing this early on, Built.io Contentstack stores and delivers all content in JSON.

Staging your content

When you see your content and design come together, it’s a rewarding experience for all the teams involved. Staging your content in an environment identical to your production one will allow your team to start editing your content in real time. When I say identical, I don’t mean just really similar, I mean exactly the same OS, same DB, and the same plugins. Talk to your DevOps team; they’ll understand.

Built.io Contentstack allows users of all skill levels to mantain and update their own authorized content, including images, videos and more. Best practice should always be to check any changes on the staging environment before committing to the production environment push. With built-in version control, you can easily roll back edits and start over if need be, or continue to iterate while maintaining a detailed version history.

Stakeholder review (aka business UAT)

The stakeholder review stage is when the website is designed, developed and content is complete. This typically happens within a few days or a week before a big marketing deadline or an important announcement. In larger companies, the web marketing team will need sign off from members throughout the organization in different business units and upper management.

Some of these teams may not have been involved in the initial content creation but will usually have some additional input – sometimes a lot. Having the ability to manage content in a CMS quickly is key here. You may want to try and identify these stakeholders who have strong opinions earlier on so you can get them involved in the preliminary stages when design decisions and content are being determined.

Go live

Okay. Everyone has signed off; let’s go live! Time to push your staged code repository to your cloud infrastructure. DevOps to the rescue! Production delivery is usually done during off peak hours, typically just after midnight to account for multiple timezones. Having scalable cloud infrastructure to deliver to thousands, or sometimes millions, of users is critical. The DevOps support team is there to ensure the smooth delivery and backup of your environment. If at any point site traffic is exceeding the configured infrastructure, your DevOps team can quickly ramp up some virtual machines with your scalable cloud environment to support the extra usage, eliminating the risk of a potential outage.

Post production management

Your SEO optimized site is now live, your Google Analytics is firing, and pixel tracking is in place. Maybe you explore a little bit of A/B Testing with Adobe Target or Optimizely and find you’re not getting the traffic or demographics you desire. After performing a deep dive into your analytics, starting with your first month’s worth of data to reach statistical significance, you’ve come up with some targeted content changes you would like to make. With Built.io Contentstack, you can deploy your content changes and update your SEO keywords or tags on the fly to start getting the traffic or user base you desire. It’s as easy as type and publish.

Time to publish

Now that you have read about some industry best practices for content management for mobile, web, and IoT, you have the foundation for accelerating your business into the future.

Interested in how Built.io can help you be successful in your mobile, web or IoT endeavors? Contact us for more information on Built.io Contentstack or a demo.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/best-practices-for-content-management-across-mobile-web-and-iothttps://www.built.io/blog/best-practices-for-content-management-across-mobile-web-and-iotMon, 27 Jul 2015 00:00:00 GMTYesterday, Built.io’s CEO, Neha Sampat, spoke on the connected cars panel at AppNation IoT Influencers Summit. The discussion on connected cars is becoming more prominent, and, as policies are being created, it’s interesting to explore possibilities and points-of-view when it comes to implementation of this new technology.

One of the challenges in building connected cars is making sure that they can all talk to each other. Ideally, a car from Ford should be able to communicate with all other cars on road, whether they are from Ford, or another car manufacturer.

When it comes to apps, the car is no different from the phone, but with the additional requirement that applications have to be safe and easy for the driver to use inside a vehicle. But it’s not just the confines of the vehicle that matter. As Neha Sampat said on the panel this week, “Forget about the car itself. Once it has an internet heartbeat and connects to your home, your smartphone, your city – you are no longer limited by the physical car.” It’s not about the connected car, “it’s about the life of a connected individual.”

The connected car poses a unique set of challenges, with safety being one of the key factors in implementation. Jon Potter of the Application Developers Alliance said, “You should be promoting autonomous vehicles. Odds are it’s going to be safer.” John Ellis, of Ellis & Associates added that, “If we had as many accidents with airlines as we do with cars today, there would be no more air travel.” However, with autonomous cars there are other issues. For example, if you don’t understand your self-driving car, how do you jump in to control a car if an issue does arise?

The key with the connected car is to provide an experience that is intuitive and safe for the user while tapping into the power of all the relevant connected infrastructure, services and data around it. As policies and standards for connected vehicles are decided on, it will be interesting to see where the industry and technology go.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/connected-car-developer-panel-at-appnation-iot-influencers-summithttps://www.built.io/blog/connected-car-developer-panel-at-appnation-iot-influencers-summitWed, 22 Jul 2015 00:00:00 GMTLast week, Built.io’s CEO, Neha Sampat, spoke about the Internet of Things at the BDO Offices in San Francisco during an exclusive Lunch and Learn Panel: “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness: Why the Internet of Things looms large in the future of your business.”

Connected things are beginning to perform tasks that previously would have taken considerable time and manual effort. This new found convenience is beginning to provide people with more freedom to spend their time doing what matters.

A pertinent example brought up during the panel is the incorporation of the Internet of Things in car maintenance. If a sensor in your car can let the dealer know when your car needs maintenance, then the dealer can call you to make an appointment, allowing you to focus on other tasks. As Amie Gray, CEO and Founder of N³ Innovation, said, “I don’t even know how many miles I have on my car anymore – because I don’t need to.”

When considering adopting an Internet of Things strategy as a company, according to Gray, key questions to ask are, “If I were to connect two things, what could I do better compared to what I’m doing now and how I am doing it? And from a business perspective – what could I do that my competitors aren’t doing?”

As the Internet of Things trend continues to grow, we’re excited to see how connected strategies are applied and what kind of problems they will solve. We are especially looking forward to the Connected Cars panel that Neha Sampat will be participating in at the AppNation IoT Influencers Summit in Santa Clara at Levi’s Stadium tomorrow at 10:55AM.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/internet-of-things-lunch-learnhttps://www.built.io/blog/internet-of-things-lunch-learnMon, 20 Jul 2015 00:00:00 GMTWe are excited to announce a major update to Built.io Contentstack, our award-winning CMS. These updates include import and export functionality; now you can download the schema of a form in JSON format and import it back into Built.io Contentstack. This is a very useful feature if you want to introduce changes across several entries or forms, or simply keep backups of your data in Built.io Contentstack.

We’ve also introduced webhooks, which provide a way to integrate Built.io Contentstack with other applications. Webhooks can be triggered for all significant events on your websites and provide notifications in a format easily understood by applications. Simply add a trigger URL and specify a condition that will trigger this webhook.

With the latest release we now provide an interface for developers to view comprehensive records of all events associated with a website. The Audit Logs screen lists all events since the inception of the website. This is especially helpful for site owners to monitor the activities of all collaborators on the website, along with the public IP from which they performed the action.

There is now a filter for the Publish Status and a facility to specify a date range. The format changed from a timeline view to a tableview, which is more intuitive and focuses on providing comprehensive information to the user.

To show you just how easy and intuitive it is to use Built.io Contentstack, our youngest ever intern is going to teach you how to update the “News and Awards” page on the Built.io website:

You can read more about the Built.io Contentstack update in our press release.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/built-io-contentstack-releases-biggest-update-since-launchhttps://www.built.io/blog/built-io-contentstack-releases-biggest-update-since-launchThu, 16 Jul 2015 00:00:00 GMTConnected vehicles have made big strides in the past couple years. The idea of connecting a vehicle to the Internet and an essentially unlimited web of services is no longer just a dream. Today's cars already have sophisticated internal networking, connecting 30 or more Electronic Control Units (ECUs) together in realtime to control every aspect of the car’s systems, from window switches to collision avoidance. The next step is to bring this wealth of information to an external network of cars, infrastructure, and applications.

The connected vehicle space is projected to be a $2.3 trillion market with software and hardware accounting for $152 billion according to Business Insider’s Connected Car Forecast. Seamless integration of hardware and software is necessary to continue the current pace of development. With this continuous progress comes the predicament of stable integration with legacy systems. Vehicles are normally driven for 6 years according to KBB, so older hardware must be able to interface with the latest software packages easily and without destabilizing safety systems or detracting from the end-user experience.

Current Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) features range from lane departure prevention to smartphone integration and gesture control. Advanced Driver Assistance Systems are connecting more and more sensors together to create driver aides that help create a safer and more enjoyable driving experience. The ability to integrate multiple sensors into a stable network is key to the development of future ADAS.

Car manufacturers are only partially integrating smart devices because of the fragmented mobile OS space and government restrictions on the use of mobile devices in vehicles. With the focus on infotainment, there is a demand for connecting these entertainment-focused systems with Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) by regulators as well as consumers. Many companies, such as BMW and Mercedes, have begun integrating these systems into a driver-focused vehicle. Mercedes has a system that monitors the driver state, so if the driver doses off the vehicle can take control and come to a safe stop.

Gregory Krueger, who manages the Connected Vehicle program at Leidos, integrates current programs, program objectives and future research needs of the Connected Vehicle program with the US Department of Transportation. From his perspective,"The fully connected vehicle integrates with mapping, traffic and other database tools to provide the vehicle (and driver) with a situational awareness of its surroundings that far surpasses the ability of a human using eyes and ears alone."

Establishment and adoption of standards is likely to drive success in the connected car space. "The act of driving is becoming less about the car and more about the world around the car. This requires that not only the vehicle is built to one set of standards but also that the infrastructure in all locations use the same standards, which presents many challenges and opportunities," Krueger states. "One of the keys to the successful deployment of this technology is the use of standards for V2X communications to ensure that a vehicle sold in Toronto will work in Los Angeles and a vehicle sold in Miami will work in Dubuque."

As the connected vehicle space matures and becomes better defined, car manufacturers will have to implement a hybrid of software and hardware packages to best suit their vehicle lineup and brand image while ensuring they meet the regulations that will soon be placed over the connected vehicle ecosystem. An integration platform that allows car manufacturers to easily connect hardware sensors to different software packages will help automakers to continuously iterate while maintaining a system that can run on older vehicles and remain on the cutting edge of the connected car space.

Next week Built.io CEO, Neha Sampat, will be speaking on a panel titled, “IoT Developer Workshop: Connected Car Apps” at AppNation IoT Influencers Summit alongside Leidos’ Connected Vehicle Program Manager, Greg Krueger, and representatives from Ellis & Associates and the Application Developers Alliance. This deep-dive session for current and prospective connected car app developers will dig-in to the rapidly evolving connected car ecosystem and highlight where the current and emerging app development are — and will be.

Be sure to make it to Levi’s Stadium on July 21st at 10:55AM for this exciting panel featuring IoT and connected car space leaders.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/the-internet-of-apis-the-connected-carhttps://www.built.io/blog/the-internet-of-apis-the-connected-carWed, 15 Jul 2015 00:00:00 GMTTalk about DevOps is on the rise, and technologies like Docker, Rudder, as well as continuous integration tools like Jenkins are entering center stage. As DevOps practices become ubiquitous, it’s important to understand what a DevOps engineer does, and how to optimize those processes.

1. Find the root cause.

Having an unknown root cause is a problem that’s mainly faced by those new to DevOps. Nothing stops working on its own, there’s always a root cause. If you know that something suddenly changed or abruptly stopped working, you also know that there must be something affecting the environment. A DevOps engineer should always strive to resolve issues by identifying and addressing the root cause.

2. Isolate the issue.

Applications today have complex infrastructure and architecture. If an application is facing an issue, then it is essential to determine the all contributing factors. It may be a combination of multiple issues, which may or may not be correlated. In the case of multiple issues, these issues may be a chain of events, collateral damage or it could be what we call a snowball effect. Specific metrics to be considered are: size of data, number of users, and site usage when issue occurred. Collecting these factors will help isolate the issues, which in turn will lead to a faster resolution.

3. Prioritize tickets through context.

The ticketing system is an integral part of a healthy DevOps practice. It helps the DevOps engineer to quantify and track his/her work. When the DevOps engineer handles multiple tickets, the probability of getting different priorities jumbled increases. The key for solving this problem is to understand that priorities are governed by more than just the drop down priority list in your ticketing system. You have to consider the origin of the ticket, the business driver associated with it and the stakeholders impacted by the issue. An urgent priority for one ticket may mean that it needs to be completed within a day or so, whereas for another ticket “urgent” could mean it needs to be dealt with within the hour. The ultimate priority and handling of a ticket should always be driven by a combination of urgency, business impact and context.

4. Confirm application status in realtime.

The confirmation for any process or application status should be checked and conveyed in realtime. The status has to be derived from near realtime data otherwise the current state of the application or process is unclear. Make sure you communicate the status of an application properly by providing the most up-to-date information.

5. Check. Then recheck.

If everything looks good, check again. When all checks are looking good, check again to ensure that everything is really going well, and the monitoring system itself is not malfunctioning. No one ever said, “I wish I hadn’t checked just one more time.”

6. The end user experience trumps all.

DevOps engineers often need to schedule maintenance for a variety of reasons, e.g. to upgrades infrastructure or roll out new code on a production environment. While the goal is always to execute maintenance without any downtime, it is also important to consider user experience when there is downtime. All the meticulous planning leading up to an “upgrade” is negated if the end-user experience is downgraded. Success of a maintenance window is measured by its user experience. If you know there will be downtime, let the user know with as much notice as possible.

If a maintenance window requires a website or an application to incur downtime, success of the operation is measured by the user experience once the site is up and running again.

When planning for maintenance with or without downtime, seasoned DevOps engineers always consider the end user experience before, during and after the event.

7. Zoom in and zoom out.

It is almost always advisable to take a step back and consider the big picture when considering application infrastructure. Likewise, when trying to troubleshoot issues or optimize and environment, you’ll want to zoom in as much as possible to parameters at the most granular level possible. The butterfly-effect is very real for DevOps: modifying small aspects of the application infrastructure, can have far reaching effects on application performance or stability.

It is highly recommended to make small changes and monitor the impact across the entire environment before moving on.

Hopefully this advice is useful for our DevOps industry peers. We would also love to hear your best practices, tips and tricks in the comments.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/7-steps-for-smooth-sailing-through-devops-watershttps://www.built.io/blog/7-steps-for-smooth-sailing-through-devops-watersMon, 06 Jul 2015 00:00:00 GMT1. Be assured of the skills you have, and ready to learn the ones you don’t.

You may feel useless when tackling your first position as a new intern, but that’s how everyone starts. It takes time to get up to speed. It’s your first week, so relax; every other developer has worked on the project for months if not years and you’re not there to compete with that experience. The point of an internship is to learn. You are not expected to design the entire product for the company. They obviously decided you are qualified to learn what they are working with, and that is why they hired you in the first place.

2. Ask questions, but try to figure it out on your own first.

The first day on the job as an intern you are assigned a project with some tasks and tossed into an endless waterfall of code. Your mind races around as fast as you thought possible and everything you read just seems to go in your head and then exit right out as you delve deeper into this bottomless pit. You don’t want to ask questions because you do not want to present yourself as being under-qualified, but at the same time you cannot progress without these questions being answered. Ask as many questions as you need to, but spend some time really trying to learn the material on your own first; it’s the best way to learn and it will help you ask more precise questions.

3. Organize your code and be proud of your work.

The code you’ve written for yourself or the code you’ve written for class – for me, it was always a three-step process. Learn the material, program the material, and if it works, submit the material. Working at a startup where documentation is fresh, and developers are very precise on how things are run, making your project look pretty is a way to get bonus points. When submitting code for review, the developers really enjoy not having to fix little errors that could have been corrected with a little extra effort on your end. Take pride in your work, and make sure it’s the best possible code you can submit.

4. Enjoy your company.

Obviously learning and gaining experience is the main reason why you wanted an internship, but that is not the only way you can benefit from it. Socialize and become actual friends with some of your coworkers. If you do not enjoy the people at this job, you will not enjoy being here 40 hours a week. If you're stressed not only with your workload, but with the annoyance of the business, making the most of your internship is going to be rough. Being comfortable at a company makes learning and enjoying work that much easier.

5. Take feedback with a positive attitude.

Honest feedback can seem harsh at first, especially when your supervisor says things like: “This doesn’t work, neither does this, but you did well on this other thing, but you need to fix this…” Take all of this with a positive attitude. They are providing this kind of feedback so you can perfect your craft and be prepared for bigger and tougher tasks. In the future you will probably thank them for fixing the errors that you understand now. The fact that someone with more experience is taking the time to give you feedback means that they’re taking an interest and seeing potential for growth in you.

Remember that each individual has a different experience and will adapt differently to new environments. These 5 lessons are just the start of the adventure. All these challenges have made me a better intern and provided me with professional guidance that will soon help me in my first full-time position. Most importantly, have fun pursuing your goals and be open to learning every day.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/5-lessons-learned-as-a-first-time-software-engineering-internhttps://www.built.io/blog/5-lessons-learned-as-a-first-time-software-engineering-internFri, 26 Jun 2015 00:00:00 GMTToday, searching for the perfect content management system (CMS) is no different from the quest for the Holy Grail. After the dot-com boom in the late ‘90s, many companies found it easy to reach a global audience with their content via the internet. This era resulted in three dominant open source CMS systems: Wordpress, Joomla, and Drupal. In addition, big players such as Adobe, Sitecore, and SDL entered the scene with their own feature-rich content management systems. While each one has proven a useful tool for many to establish a web presence, more complex enterprise web properties and a new generation of more sophisticated and engaging websites have given rise to a new breed of CMS.

Having implemented the top open source and proprietary CMS environments for some of the most ambitious and innovative brands over the last 8 years at Built.io, I would like to draw on that experience to illustrate the difference between the old and new ways of managing content by offering a detailed comparison between our own award-winning content management system – Built.io Contentstack – and one of the big three legacy CMS environments, Drupal.

Backstory

Built.io Contentstack and Drupal share a similar purpose, but they were created with different visions in mind. Originally created to become the global open source software for powering the web, Drupal was created in 2001 and is still one of the most popular CMS options around. Built.io Contentstack, on the other hand, was created with a laser focus on making website management easier for content stewards in medium to large organizations – typically users with little or no hands-on development experience. The result is a CMS that allows business users to easily add and manage content on their own, without the need to understand or touch code. No more support requests, no more waiting for an overburdened web team to respond – with Built.io Contentstack any Marketing Manager can post a new press release with the touch of a button.

In the following feature comparison, you can see how Built.io Contentstack provides several advantages over using Drupal thanks to the ease of installation, development, and on-going content management:

Seamless installation and use

Ever wondered why most content management systems are so difficult to use? Installing Drupal itself consists of a multitude of steps. To actually configure Drupal for your website is a painful exercise which typically requires working through endless pages of documentation.

Using Built.io Contentstack, you can get a website up and running in just four steps (or less). This includes installation, basic templating, configuring the publishing options, and publishing the content. The magic ingredient that makes this possible is the separation of content from site-related programming and design. Instead of relying on databases, it’s built on top of Built.io Backend, a robust application development platform. So, you do not need to be an expert in databases, PHP, Ruby on Rails, or Java to implement Built.io Contentstack. Even basic HTML and simple JavaScript templating is sufficient to create an impressive website from scratch, in record time.

Staying on the cutting edge

Drupal has been in the market for more than a decade. Hence, it’s almost everywhere and today the developer community is focused on stability and making the software available globally.

Built.io Contentstack was initially created for large websites with a large amount of content to be managed by multiple users, so stability and a global perspective were a requirement right from the beginning. However, the Built.io team never stops pushing the envelope and regularly rolls out innovative new features that make Built.io Contentstack a tool that can keep up with the ever-changing digital landscape facing businesses today.

With the changing nature of web pages and the introduction of elements such as SEO and open graph meta tags, there is a need for a robust content management system that can quickly make new features available without relying on a convoluted library of often brittle plug-ins for new features.

Empowering Frontend Engineers

The rise of Node.js is largely considered a blessing by the developer community. For years, JavaScript handled the front end and PHP managed server-side tasks. However, with the emergence of Node.js, JavaScript became empowered to handle tasks on the server too. This opened up a world of opportunity for JavaScript developers. Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal – all remain stuck in the world of PHP, while Built.io Contentstack is wholly based on Node.js, which has taken the developer world by storm. This allows even front-end developers to create page templates with ease.

Mobile-first

Thanks to the growing market of smartphones and tablets, people increasingly use their mobile devices to consume and interact with content. However, none of the three CMS giants offer mobile-friendly publishing by default. When using Drupal, in addition to choosing a responsive template, you may have to install several plugins or make changes to existing settings to ensure that a site displays even just reasonably well on mobile devices.

Built.io Contentstack was built on top of the mobile platform Built.io Backend and inherits comprehensive mobile capabilities. All data and content is stored in the JSON format which is easily available using REST APIs and particularly well suited for delivery to mobile applications. This modern approach characterized by being API-first and mobile-optimized allows content to be consumed easily across legacy clients, as well as the new generation of mobile devices.

User Management

User Management is one of the strongest suits of Built.io Contentstack and a key enabler of CMS success in the enterprise, since there is rarely just a single person in charge of all content management at a company. Traditional content management systems such as Drupal only allow you to set roles and users for different content types (aka nodes). You can allow or disallow a user to view, edit, or delete content within a node.

Built.io Contentstack, on the other hand, gives you more: a simpler interface and more sophistication for managing roles at a granular level. In addition to defining access to specific forms and environments, you can restrict a user from publishing content on a form level. You can even restrict users to certain publishing environments. For a real life example let’s consider a combination of marketing staff and members of the corporate PR team sharing access to a form managing the company’s press releases. Here, one user might be granted rights to create new and modify existing press releases. Another, separate user might be granted the right to publish releases. The latter is almost impossible if you’re using Drupal 6.

Better ROI with Software-as-a-Service

Drupal is an open source product the GNU General Public License, resulting in scores of firms dedicated to Drupal-related services, such as consulting, training, implementing, software development and more. In many cases using Drupal effectively means finding and hiring these special Drupal experts – which aren’t cheap. On top of Drupal expertise you’ll also need to shore up on other backend specialists that can help with configuring databases and smoothly scale the CMS environment.

By contrast, Built.io Contentstack is delivered via SaaS, which eliminates the need for expensive servers. It is equipped with a dedicated service in which the backend stack and scaling don’t require you to hire a team of rarefied and costly specialists.

Multi-Target Publishing

Businesses need their content readily available on multiple platforms. By contrast, to accomplish this with Drupal, you would have to employ an array of modules.

Built.io Contentstack is equipped with a unique feature that allows publishing not only to multiple environments such as development, staging, and production, but also to multiple servers for these environments. Simply publish to one or more environments and the content will automatically publish to all endpoints associated with those environments.

The Breakdown

The costs associated with using a legacy CMS like Drupal are far higher than using a SaaS CMS like Built.io Contentstack, making Built.io Contentstack ideal for enterprise needs and budgets.

Although Drupal and Built.io Contentstack are both popular content management systems, they each serve different markets. Built.io Contentstack is focused on providing a seamless experience for professional enterprise users, while Drupal is an open-source project geared towards a diverse global userbase. I hope I’ve been able to convey some of the strengths of Built.io Contentstack in simplifying and accelerating content management for enterprises, which making it possible to manage web and mobile content using a single CMS.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/a-side-by-side-comparison-of-drupal-and-built-io-contentstackhttps://www.built.io/blog/a-side-by-side-comparison-of-drupal-and-built-io-contentstackMon, 22 Jun 2015 00:00:00 GMTYesterday, at Parisoma in San Francisco, hundreds congregated to learn more about and discuss the idea of connected spaces and the Internet of Things.

The Built.io keynote, titled “API Strategy for Connected Spaces”, was based on the notion that the Internet of Things is really made possible by the Internet of APIs. The audience consisted of both developers and business leaders who shared a passion for APIs and were extremely engaged, especially when our Developer Evangelist Kurt Collins shared real-world use cases spanning connected campuses, connected venues and connected cities.

Now, more than ever, every developer needs to be adept at connecting apps, data, systems through APIs in order to orchestrate workflows and create new experiences that make connected spaces both possible and useful. Built.io’s contribution and mission is to provide the tools and technology that allow any developer to instantly become an integration expert and contribute to the coming wave of innovation.

Built.io Flow makes it possible to connect systems through APIs via a drag-and-drop interface. This talk highlighted some of the use cases that Built.io Flow enables and how they can create real business value.

"Developing APIs is not enough, to create business value you have to integrate those APIs to provide frictionless experience" CTO @Builtio
— Hélène André (@HeleneAndre_) June 17, 2015

Internet of APIs is an emerging concept we’re sure to hear more about as small and large companies alike begin to see the value in expanding their digital presence to include wearables, connected spaces, and more. Business is ready for mainstream adoption and already pioneering some exciting IoT use cases that we’re looking forward to being a part of.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/built-io-speaks-about-api-strategies-for-connected-spaces-at-api-days-in-san-franciscohttps://www.built.io/blog/built-io-speaks-about-api-strategies-for-connected-spaces-at-api-days-in-san-franciscoThu, 18 Jun 2015 00:00:00 GMTWe often talk about DevOps, but can you explain what DevOps actually is?

Built.io has been running a successful DevOps practice for 8+ years. From my experience, I’ve created a pocket definition of exactly what DevOps is and what it means, in case you ever have to talk to someone about it, for example at a conference booth, or a really geeky happy hour!

What is DevOps?

DevOps is at the nexus of development and operations. Inside most organizations that create software, these correspond to separate teams, with separate priorities, practices and tools:

Software Development “is all about code. Writing code, implementing code, testing code, re-writing code. Operations is all about looking after the systems that run that code. It is the operations staff who work out how much processing power the software will need to run, how to make the software secure, how to make it run efficiently, and how to keep it running.” (ZDNet, 4/29/15)

Why is DevOps important?

The goal of DevOps is to get everyone working together better.

DevOps, as the name implies, is a collaboration between Development and Operations. A few years ago, Software Engineers could handle all stages of the software development lifecycle (SDLC) by themselves. Gradually, the applications became too complex to handle, and teams such as UI, Development, Operations, and QA came into existence.

The following two factors fueled the formation of DevOps:

Agile development and increasing complexity

The Introduction of cloud and virtualization

The agile process and increasing complexity requires developers to focus on applications, while the emergence of cloud and virtualization technologies separated hardware maintenance and data-center aspects of machines from application management.

DevOps originated less from ability to do something new, but more from ownership of things already in place. Someone was needed to own the infrastructure, to maintain it and to tweak it to perfection. Along with this ownership, DevOps is now seen as a central communication point for all teams when it comes to production application. Fundamentally, the DevOps team helps developers to concentrate entirely on application development.

DevOps at Built.io

The Built.io team both creates and operates software – LOTS of software. Hence, customers can work with us to create a DevOps strategy and then also execute it. We provide millions of hours of experience and apply DevOps best practices for companies who do not have the internal resources or focus to manage the complexity of a robust DevOps system. If you’d like to learn more about our DevOps practice or want to chat about DevOps in general, please get in touch.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/what-is-devopshttps://www.built.io/blog/what-is-devopsWed, 17 Jun 2015 00:00:00 GMTTestNG is a Java testing framework, inspired by JUnit and NUnit. It overcomes the limitations and drawbacks of JUnit and introduces a whole new set of features, making TestNG more powerful and user-friendly. The NG stands for Next Generation, signifying the new functionalities that TestNG brings to the table. From simple unit testing to complex integrated testing, it is designed to simplify all your testing requirements such as functional testing, regression, end-to-end, and more.

Before we learn how to use TestNG, let’s take a look at some of the advantages of using this testing framework:

Simplified annotations |Annotations have been simplified, making it easier for testers to understand them.

Results in HTML | It generates reports in HTML.

Multiple test-cases at once |Using TestNG Suite (testing.xml), which is essentially an xml file, testers can execute a number of test cases at a time. In this xml file, users need to mention the number of classes and test-cases they wish to execute.

Runs failed test-cases |TestNG can also be used to run failed test-cases. This is one of most important advantages of TestNG over JUnit.

Allows grouping |TestNG allows supports grouping. Using this feature, testers can group test-cases without too much effort, which was not possible with JUnit.

Allows running on multiple browsers |TestNG allows testers to execute and run one script in multiple browsers.

Parametric testing |Most of the time, testers have to execute a large number of varied tests, mainly due to the nature of their business logic. However, this lengthy process can be eliminated as parametric testing allows you to run the same test a number of times by simply changing the values. It allows you to pass parameters to your test methods in two ways: parameter and @dataprovider.

Bypassing or ignoring test-cases |This feature is useful if you do not want execute a particular testcase(s). In such instances, TestNG, with the help of annotation @Test(enabled = false), allows you to disable or bypass the particular test-case(s).

Reporter class (it generates logs |In TestNG, with the help of the reporter class, users can log messages for the test. Let’s say you are running a test-case, and you want to log related information. This could be just surface or in-depth information, depending on what you want.

Expected exceptions |It allows you to trace the exception handling of the code. While writing a code, there may be situations where testers want to verify if an exception is being presented when executed. This method will give you the details of the exceptions that are expected to be presented by that particular method. Use this method with @Test annotation.

Dependent On Method |TestNG supports the ‘dependence’ method. We can have dependence as an attriubute of a method, for example, if one method is dependent on another. This is not available in JUnit.

TestCase priority |We can execute the test cases in a particular order. To accomplish this, we define the order in @Test Annotation.

Advantages of TestNG Over JUNIT

TestNG supports group concept, while JUnit does not support this.

Parameter Testing is possible in TestNG, but it cannot be done in JUnit.

TestNG provides special annotations, such as @Before/AfterSuite and @Before/AfterTest.

In TestNG, it is possible to change the method name. JUnit, however, does not allow this.

TestNG supports the ‘dependence’ method. This is not available in JUnit.

Using TestNG you can perform all types of tests by simply integrating it with Jenkins, Ant, and Maven. By using Ant with TestNG you can convert TestNG reports into XSLT reports. Performing parallel tests in two different machines together is possible by integrating TestNG with selenium grid. Moreover, TestNG’s flexibility makes it the best choice for large test suites.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/what-is-testnghttps://www.built.io/blog/what-is-testngMon, 08 Jun 2015 00:00:00 GMTWe’re honored to announce that earlier this week, in San Francisco, the Built.io team was awarded the Hirepalooza Culture Award for Best Innovation Program. We want to thank everyone who voted for Built.io, and all Built.io employees who work tirelessly to create and maintain an innovative and open-minded environment, which made this award possible.

This award acknowledges companies that promote and produce constant innovation through a dedicated program. We are honored to have contended with many esteemed companies, including Netflix, Yelp, and AlchemyAPI.

Neha Sampat, CEO of Built.io, attributes the rapid rate of innovation at Built.io to an openess to new projects and incentivizing employees to try new things: “At Built.io, we have developer discussions with our leadership team on a weekly basis as an opportunity for employees to talk about new tools and technologies. This open culture of collaborative exploration creates a constant flow of ideas.”

We are excited to continue innovating, and are very grateful for this recognition.

From all of us here at Built.io – THANK YOU!

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/built-io-named-hirepalooza-culture-award-winner-for-best-innovation-programhttps://www.built.io/blog/built-io-named-hirepalooza-culture-award-winner-for-best-innovation-programThu, 04 Jun 2015 00:00:00 GMTRecently, Built.io announced that its mobile-optimized content management system (CMS) for enterprise, Built.io Contentstack, now offers a Compare Versions feature. Powerful and easy to use, this new feature lets users compare different versions of the same page side by side. With just one click, it is now possible to view committed changes by authorized content editors, observe how content has evolved over time or simply revert a page back to its last saved state if something is posted by mistake.

Since enterprise companies typically have complex content management workflows, the ability to compare versions when multiple employees are contributing to the same project is indispensable.

Using the new feature is as simple as using the product itself:

When editing an entry, click this button to open the Compare Versions screen:

On the Compare Versions screen, choose the versions for comparison from the drop down menu:

Click this button to open a version in the editable mode:

Added items and text are shown in green in the new version. Deleted items are shown in red for single fields and gray for multiple ones. Reordered items are also highlighted.

Simplify your content management even further with Built.io Contentstack’s new Compare Versions feature! For more information on how to use this feature, please view the in-product tutorial within Built.io Contentstack. As always, if you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact 24/7 dedicated support@contentstack.io.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/compare-versions-feature-now-available-in-built-io-contentstackhttps://www.built.io/blog/compare-versions-feature-now-available-in-built-io-contentstackMon, 01 Jun 2015 00:00:00 GMTRecently, we saw the dual conferences Apps World North America and Internet of Things World take over Moscone Center in San Francisco. While mobile apps are all but passé – many enterprises are still woefully behind in delivering required and desired mobile innovation across their business – the buzz at the event was heavily skewed towards the arrival of the Internet of Things (IoT).

Our very own Neha Sampat, CEO of Built.io, spoke on a panel on innovation in the enterprise utilizing the Internet of Things, alongside heavy hitters from GE, Adidas, Leidos, and the Application Developer Alliance.

The lively discussion covered a wide variety of topics, from privacy issues associated with IoT use cases to proposed standards for the Connected Car arena. One major point all panelists could agree on was that mobile and IoT aren’t all that different from one another. Many of the challenges around scale, integration, security and content delivery are highly relevant to both discussions. Luckily, the lessons learnt as part of the rise of mobile translate quite easily to best practices for IoT.

From a business perspective, Built.io has already placed its bets on the convergence of mobile and IoT. We’ve boldly dropped the “m” from our mBaaS offering and recently became the first vendor to add realtime capabilities to our Backend-as-a-Service. Realtime is a powerful ingredient for many mobile use cases, but it is an absolutely critical prerequisite for IoT.

We’re also doubling down on our cloud integration platform Built.io Flow which allows companies to connect “Things”, systems and apps – basically anything with an API – to create innovative and valuable IoT workflows for the business.

While IoT may seem like it’s the new kid on the block, we are ready for mainstream adoption and already pioneering some exciting IoT use cases – from building out our Connected Campus to advising the City of San Francisco on its Connected City initiative.

Drop us a note if you’d like to trade insights or if you are interested in teaming up around IoT.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/mobile-and-iot-worlds-colliding-in-san-franciscohttps://www.built.io/blog/mobile-and-iot-worlds-colliding-in-san-franciscoThu, 28 May 2015 00:00:00 GMTEMC World 2015 is a wrap and the Built.io Conference App once again was a hit with conference organizers and attendees alike. The EMC team was able to offer a custom mobile conference experience that was both easy to use and ready to handle the scale of its marquee event. Meanwhile, conference attendees used the app to personalize and navigate the event and organize their schedules.

“Built.io satisfied our strict security requirements and provided us with the necessary confidence to deploy a business-critical app using a Mobile Backend-as-a-Service,” said Rodney Hart, Business Operations Coordinator, EMC. Built.io Backend helped scale smoothly to handle 13,000 attendees and with thousands of API calls per second, the EMC World conference app proved engaging to users – and worry-free for EMC.

The conference application was available on iPhone, Android, iPad and Web platforms. Users polled at the conference shared their delight with the application. Conference administrators sent out several push notifications to conference attendees a day – all with the push of a button. The notifications proved to be a great way to engage users, as noted by spikes in application activity after a push notification was sent. In fact, half of the top-10 API calls/second occurred as a result of push notifications.

As with almost all successful mobile applications, user experience was crucial. The conference use case illustrates well how a huge part of that experience is created in the backend – making sure that servers are up and running, content can be changed in realtime, data is available promptly, analytics are being tracked, and that push notifications can be sent out seamlessly.

The EMC World mobile conference application accomplished all of these – so CONGRATULATIONS to EMC!!

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/built-io-backend-takes-vegas-by-storm-powers-official-mobile-conference-app-for-13-000-attendees-at-emc-world-2015https://www.built.io/blog/built-io-backend-takes-vegas-by-storm-powers-official-mobile-conference-app-for-13-000-attendees-at-emc-world-2015Tue, 26 May 2015 00:00:00 GMTThis past week, Neha Sampat, CEO of Built.io, spoke on a panel at the M6 Mobility xChange Summit in San Diego. The panel featured several leading Mobile Backend-as-a-Service (mBaaS) providers, all talking about what it takes to build apps that matter. Neha broke the mold by stating that, while mobile and mBaaS are finally gaining mainstream adoption, companies need to think bigger. A successful mobile strategy must incorporate providing real-time experiences through mobile apps, delivering mobile-optimized content and creating tangible business value through connections enabled by the Internet of APIs.

Neha also emphasized that as use cases for mobile and the Internet of Things converge, the “m” in “mBaaS” will become less important over time. Building apps, then, becomes a starting point rather than the end game. Integration with legacy environments, connecting to and tapping into SaaS services, delivering the right data to the right place at the right time and providing what Conference Chair Maribel Lopez coined “Right-Time Experiences” – that’s where companies find tangible value.

To top off what was an all-around exquisite event, Built.io was awarded the 2015 “Best Emerging Technology” award. This was a special honor, as contenders for the prize were nominated and voted on by conference attendees – all top executives and mobile decision makers at industry-leading companies.

On behalf of the entire Built.io team – THANK YOU!!

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/built-io-wins-big-at-m6-mobility-xchange-summithttps://www.built.io/blog/built-io-wins-big-at-m6-mobility-xchange-summitFri, 22 May 2015 00:00:00 GMTThis week at Apps World North America, Built.io announced that the award-winning Built.io Backend now offers cross-platform realtime capabilities. This not only greatly expands the number and utility of mobile applications that mBaaS is suitable for, but also brings into the fold Internet of Things use cases (Realtime is a fundamental prerequisite for IoT). Built.io Backend is officially the first and only enterprise mBaaS to offer realtime capabilities and now provides backend services for mobile, web and IoT.

So what is realtime good for? From Uber-like apps, to live heatmaps indicating a gathering crowd, messaging clients using a ‘presence’ indicator, and data syncing – realtime use cases are endless. Here’s an award-winning app – TouchFreight – using our realtime functionality to manage live data associated with a fleet of shipping trucks:

Why does it change the game for mobile app developers? Well, previously, you had to choose between a mobile backend lacking realtime capabilities, or a dedicated realtime system without the capabilities required for enterprise app development. With Built.io Backend, developers can now use realtime alongside mBaaS capabilities, such as built-in geolocation, built-in analytics, built-in content management and advanced security features expected by enterprises.

Realtime support is available immediately for any new or existing app powered by Built.io. Developers can take advantage of the new capabilities by downloading the updated SDK at https://docs.built.io.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/a-game-changer-for-mbaas-realtime-arrives-in-built-io-backendhttps://www.built.io/blog/a-game-changer-for-mbaas-realtime-arrives-in-built-io-backendWed, 13 May 2015 00:00:00 GMTNote: To get the most out of this blog post, you should be familiar with the basic concepts of AWS Command Line Interface and Identity and Access Management.

For many companies, cloud costs can be a concern. In order to control costs, managers will request that environments be stopped when not in use. In order to do this in non-production environments, you can use AWS Command Line Interface to start and stop these and AWS instance.

Most of the time non-production instances in Amazon Web Services can remain in a stopped state while the cloud management team is offline in order to control infrastructure costs. It makes sense to automate this activity because it needs to be carried out every day. This automated stop-start of AWS instances can be achieved effectively through AWS Command Line Interface with the necessary access restrictions in place on AWS resources using Identity and Access Management policies.

Before we begin, in order to make use of automated stop-start, you should set up your instance with all the required upstart configurations such that your application or services running on that instance come up after an instance reboot.

Let’s consider the different types of applications, with respect to AWS infrastructure:

This post will demonstrate how AWS Command Line Interface can be used for applications of these three types and their associated Identity and Access Management policies. All Identity and Access Management policies will have EC2-read only access in common. The keys generated for IAM user which has these IAM policies associated, would be used to configure aws-cli.

Without Elastic Load Balancer

Command Line Interface Commands

These applications may have single or multiple instances. To stop/start instance following command is executed:

In place of instance-id multiple IDs can be passed. A huge disadvantage if we use this command directly is that we would need to hard-code the instance-ids in our scripts. This approach certainly needs to be changed. As a solution, we can use the above command in combination with following command:

The filter applied is: Name=”Test: Instance 1”. This filter can be modified per your use-case, for example: the tag could be Environment and value could be Staging. So, it could be written as: --filters "Name=tag:Environment,Values=Staging".

The describe-instances command will return the required instance-ids and those can be passed on as arguments to stop-instances or start-instances command.

Identity and Access Management Policy

In this Identity and Access Management policy, we will restrict the stop/start action as follows:

This way, we can ensure the AWS Command Line Interface onlys has access to stop/start the instances we want. For resource specifications, Amazon Resource Names (ARN) are used.

Elastic Load Balancer without Autoscaling

CLI Commands

Instances behind ELB (without autoscaling) can be stopped/started using the method specified in step one. However, when instances behind ELB are started, it takes some time to have that instance "in service". The following command will help in getting the instance in service in ELB quickly:

asg-name - auto-scaling group name
launch-config-name - launch configuration name associated with auto-scaling group
min-size - minimum number of instances should be present behind ELB
max-size - maximum number of instances should be present behind ELB

Identity and Access Management Policy

Unfortunately, for auto-scaling resource-level permission does not exist. That means, we cannot restrict the IAM user to a specific auto-scaling group. Maximum possible restriction is as follows:

Using the above combinations, it's possible to automate stop/start of simple or complex environments on whenever needed, and to optimize infrastructure costs by doing so. If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/stop-start-functionality-for-non-production-aws-instances-using-aws-command-line-interfacehttps://www.built.io/blog/stop-start-functionality-for-non-production-aws-instances-using-aws-command-line-interfaceThu, 16 Apr 2015 00:00:00 GMTThis year the built.io team is celebrating Internet of Things Day, and we’re very proud to be playing a role in this space. From our first drone script all the way to the launch of built.io Flow this year, we’re digging in deeper to the Internet of APIs, the fabric enabling the Internet of Things.

To celebrate IoT Day, we’re going to give you a sneak peak into what our vision for the future looks like. Much like the internet and the http protocol, API orchestration and automation will be the connector of this web of connected things or devices. From your coffee pot to your a piece of high-tech industrial hardware, everything will have an API.

These APIs will need a central tool to connect them to one another in a meaningful and useful way. built.io Flow allows you to do just that; connect and automate API workflows to make the Internet of Things work for you or your business. That connected coffee pot is great, but wouldn’t it be cool if you could start the coffee machine when you hit your snooze button the second time? We think so!

In celebration of IoT Day, tweet at @builtio your vision for the future of the Internet of APIs and Internet of Things with the hashtag #IoTDay and #IoA.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/happy-iot-day-from-the-built-io-teamhttps://www.built.io/blog/happy-iot-day-from-the-built-io-teamThu, 09 Apr 2015 00:00:00 GMTHave you ever wondered: “Will I like this wine? Is it ready to drink? What wine is perfect for the meal I’m about to eat?” If you have, the built.io Smart Corkscrew is the solution for you.

Our team of expert sommeliers, chemists, biologists, hardware manufacturers, developers and wine enthusiasts are excited to release built.io’s second hardware product exactly one year after our release of smart connect.

The built.io Smart Corkscrew is the world’s first independently-intelligent wine consumption enablement device, but it’s so much more than that.

We began designing the built.io Smart Corkscrew by asking ourselves: “What do people use corkscrews for?” But, we dove in deeper to understand the true experience by asking: “How do users feel when they first pick up a corkscrew, when they screw it in, after opening a new bottle of wine, and as they taste their first sip?” We realized a corkscrew is about so much more than just opening a bottle of wine.

Just Yours

The built.io Smart Corkscrew starts working the moment you touch the packaging. It can instantly detect an individual’s love for wine and will secrete pleasant scents to entice the individual to open the packaging. When you touch the built.io Smart Corkscrew for the first time, it builds an instant user profile and identifies your favorite wine varietal and regions.

Every bottle of wine you drink and every action you take with the built.io Smart Corkscrew will improve your user profile. Pretty soon it will help you find the perfect wine pairing for each meal tailored just for you. The built.io Smart Corkscrew can integrate with other intelligent devices. For example, if you know you want a bottle of Zinfandel, your Smart Corkscrew can work with your smart refrigerator to suggest the perfect meal using the ingredients you have at home.

Staying Healthy

Like many of us on the built.io team, we know fitness, healthy eating and a healthy lifestyle is important. The built.io Smart Corkscrew can connect with the most popular solutions such as FitBit, Apple Watch, Health Kit, Jawbone, The 7-Minute Workout and more to ensure that you’re keeping to your daily workout routine. In fact, you can even ask the built.io Smart Corkscrew to enforce your daily requirements. If you haven’t taken enough steps, it won’t open the wine bottle for you!

Put on Your Thinking Cap

Want to learn more about wine, wine making, grapes or glassware? We’ve partnered with Velvet Rope Wines to build education into the corkscrew. You’ll become a pro in no time! In fact, if you’ve gotten serious, we’ve built somm-quizes right in. While studying for your exams, you can have the built.io Smart Corkscrew quiz you before opening a bottle of wine. Get five questions right, and you’ll be able to open the bottle.

So Many Integrations Your Head Will Explode

The built.io Smart Corkscrew comes with thousands of integrations through built.io Flow. Apart from all the awesome things you can do by integrating with smart connect, you can build virtually any integration you want. For example, lets say your sales team has the built.io Smart Corkscrew. You could require they close $100,000 before opening a bottle of wine; the possibilities are endless. Here’s a few of the popular integrations we’ve seen from our Alpha and Beta customers:

Calorie Tracking - calculate exactly how many milliliters of wine you can drink based on your remaining calories in your chosen fitness app and only pour out that much wine.

Social Integrations - capture the perfect photo and the built.io Smart Corkscrew will automatically adjust you to the right filter to help others see how great your night is.

Kids Free Zone - emit a low-pitch frequency through your home speaker system so that kids stay at least 15 feet away and you can drink your wine in peace.

DD Parent - Drank a little too much wine at lunch? No problem! The built.io Smart Corkscrew will automatically coordinate with DD Parent to ensure your kids get from school to soccer practice and back home safe. You get to take a nap instead.

The Perfect Host - Not sure what your guest wants to drink? Not-to-worry, the built.io Smart Corkscrew can automatically integrate with your existing wine collection and find the perfect bottle for your guest.

Introducing Wine Now in Beta

We’re excited to offer our users an early glimpse into what’s to come. Wine Now is one of the top features we’ll be releasing in version two. As you’re finishing up your wine, the built.io Smart Corkscrew will integrate with your home drone to automatically bring you your next bottle of wine. It monitors your drinking patterns, the perspiration in your breath, your tone of voice and more to help select the perfect bottle for you and your group. Don’t waste time trying to figure out what to drink next.

Appium is an open source testing tool that allows you to easily write functional tests to automate iOS and Android mobile applications. It is an HTTP server that manages WebDriver sessions and has support for real device testing. This blog post will guide you through automating iOS testing using this tool and node.js.

The technique presented in this article is a practical way to automate user interface as well as functional testing in iOS. This is ideal when the product design is relatively dynamic or when you have limited resources for test automation. This allows you to test iOS native apps on different versions and various devices. It meets recurrent mobile application testing needs in a simple manner and adheres to the scrum methodology.

Install ideviceinstaller: A tool to interact with the installation_proxy of an iOS device allowing installing, upgrading, uninstalling, archiving, and restoring apps.

$brew install -v --HEAD --fresh --build-from-source ideviceinstaller

Overview of Appium

How does it work?

As shown in the above figure, Appium proxies command to a UI Automation script running in a Mac Instruments environment. Apple provides an application called Instruments which is used to do things like profiling, controlling and building iOS apps. It also has an automation component which allows you to write commands in JavaScript which uses UI Automation APIs to interact with the App UI. Appium utilizes these same libraries to automate iOS Apps.

Open Appium, click settings icon to input IP address to listen.

Click the Apple Settings Icon and input Appium server capabilities

:

Application

App Path: The path to the iOS application (.app, .zip, or .ipa) you wish to test.

Choose Button: Used to choose the path to your application.

BundleID: The bundle ID for the application you wish Appium to use (e.g. com.yourCompany.yourApp).

Use Mobile Safari: This will make Appium start the Mobile Safari app instead of using a user-supplied application. BundleID or App Path should both be unchecked when this option is used.

Device Settings

Force Device: This will make Appium force the Simulator to iPhone or iPad mode.

Platform Version: Version of the mobile platform.

Force Orientation: Force the orientation of the Simulator.

UDID: This is the UDID for the mobile device on which you want to run Appium. If this box is checked, Appium will use the attached iOS device. If this field is checked, bundle ID must be supplied and app path should be unchecked.

Show Simulator Log: If checked, the iOS simulator log will be written to the console.

Testing iOS Native Apps on Real Devices

What are the desired capabilities of Appium VS Selenium?

The capabilities were updated to match the mobile version of JSWP. Selenium wasn’t designed for mobile, so we worked with the Selenium project to define a new set of capabilities that support mobile.

Create a folder named Node_Sample.

In Node_Sample folder, Create a folder named helpers.

Open Sublime Text and write the following code in the caps.js file and save in helpers folder:

Open Terminal; Make sure your current directory must be Node_Sample and type npm install to install all node modules.

Run: $mocha sample.js

Appium is used to test critical user operations at scale, and make sure they are working correctly. In conclusion, it can be said that this is successful automation tool that depends on a standard testing process.

I hope this was a helpful guide to automating native iOS testing with Appium, using node.js. Please leave questions in the comments.

Like what you read? Join our community to get more technical information, chances to win prizes, and more: built.io/community

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/start-automating-native-ios-testing-with-appium-using-node-jshttps://www.built.io/blog/start-automating-native-ios-testing-with-appium-using-node-jsMon, 23 Mar 2015 00:00:00 GMTNeha Sampat, CEO of built.io, was named one of San Francisco Business Times ‘40 under 40.’ Throughout her career, Neha has championed innovation, women’s leadership, and diversity in the workplace. She comes from a non-technical background, but has rocked the high-tech world by surrounding herself with smart people who have strengths in areas that she does not.

built.io is proud to have Neha Sampat at the helm, and is honored to have an SF Business Times 40 under 40 in our midst every day.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/built-io-ceo-named-40-under-40-by-sf-business-timeshttps://www.built.io/blog/built-io-ceo-named-40-under-40-by-sf-business-timesFri, 20 Mar 2015 00:00:00 GMTThis is the second year that built.io has sponsored the University Mobile Challenge, and we are proud to announce that TouchFreight, a shipment dispatch company powered by built.io MBaaS, won the first-ever Washburn Prize, and came in first place in the University Mobile Challenge. This UC Berkeley team created a mobile solution that enables shipping companies to dispatch shipments, communicate with drivers and plan better routes at the touch of a button. With a dispatch web portal and an onboard driver iPad application, shippers can eliminate costly faxes and phone calls, minimize re-routing and ship more, faster.

The TouchFreight team has an ideal mix of technology, business, and finance experts, which is a tried and true recipe for success. Ryan Chapman and Eric Nelson developed the iPad application, web portal, and a marketing website for TouchFreight, all within a semester, with direction from Product Manager, Lucas Miller. The team also put together a detailed financial and pricing model led by Finance Manager Braxton Greco. Lauren Hanlon was at the business helm and secured the first enterprise customer to beta test the product.

Early on, this power team realized that an enterprise application requires an enterprise backend, which led them to migrate from consumer platform Parse to built.io. built.io MBaaS provided the necessary tools to build TouchFreight for the large-scale shipping market, which will now go from faxing orders to using an iPad and an advanced web portal to coordinate deliveries, saving time and money.

Selenium

Primarily, Selenium automates browsers; the level of automation is completely up to how you use the tool.

Selenium WebDriver

Selenium WebDriver is a successor of Selenium RC. Selenium WebDriver provides a more concise programming interface, better support for dynamic web pages where elements of a page may change without the page itself being reloaded. It’s designed to provide improved support for modern advanced web-app testing problems.

It helps to create robust browser-based automation and scales and distributes scripts across many environments. Selenium WebDriver does not require a special server to execute tests as it directly starts a browser instance and controls the tests. Selenium WebDriver provides a friendly API which is simple to grasp and understand, thus making the tests easier to maintain. It is independent of any test framework which increases its usage from small module testing to large system testing. The WebDrivers are independent and they do not need any additional processes or installers to be run before using them.

Languages support for WebDriver

Selenium WebDriver supports most programming languages, which gives Selenium an upper hand over other testing tools.

Lets walk through a few advantages of Selenium WebDriver through various programming languages:

It uses its own memory space and thus decreases the loading time and workload from the server. The processing speed is fast and web applications like Ecommerce, CRM, CMS and Forums are also developed faster is PHP is used.

Python offers strong support for integrations with other technologies, programmer productivity throughout the development life cycle, and it is particularly well suited for large or complex projects with changing requirements.

Python is the most rapidly growing open source programming language.

Python is available for most operating systems, including Windows, UNIX, Linux, and Mac OS.

Package automation Framework;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
import org.openqa.selenium.*;
import org.openqa.selenium.firefox.FirefoxDriver;
public class test
{
// class name and file name should be same.
public static WebDriver driver = null;
public static void main(String[] args)
{
driver = new FirefoxDriver(); // Create a new instance of the Firefox driver
//Put a Implicit wait, this means that any search for elements on the page could take the time driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(30, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
//navigate to Google
driver.get("http://www.google.com");
// Find the text input element by its name and enter any text example “RawEng"
driver.findElement(By.xpath("//*[@id='gbqfq']")).sendKeys("RawEng");
// Hit Enter button on the webpage.
driver.findElement(By.xpath("//*[@id='gbqfq']")).sendKeys(Keys.ENTER);
driver.quit();
}
}

Browser Structure for WebDriver

WebDriver allows you to execute tests on multiple browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari and Opera. WebDriver is faster than Selenium RC as it speaks directly to the browser uses the browser's own engine to control it. To learn more, visit the Selenium WebDriver website.

React is a JavaScript user interface (UI) library developed by the Facebook development team which is useful for creatiing interactive and reusable UI components.

It's used in production for the Facebook wall, and Instagram.com is written entirely in React. Why is React so different than other available JavaScript libraries? React not only performs on the client side, but it can also be rendered on the server side, and the client and server can work together to render a view.

React views are the state machines, and as soon as the state changes, it creates Virtual DOM.

What is Virtual DOM?

Virtual DOM is a concept used by React developers which actually renders the sub-tree of DOM when the state changes.

How does React work?

Imagine you have an object which reflects your car's properties. This object would consist of all general properties which cars have, and clone the car's current state. This is basically what React does with the DOM. Now, think about if you took that object and made some changes; maybe added some accessories. In React, when we apply changes, the following two things occur:

React runs a "diffing" algorithm, which identifies what has changed.

Reconciliation, where it updates the DOM with the results of diff.

Rather than taking the real car and rebuilding from the scratch , it would only change the part of it that has changed.

When you get started with React you will receive a basic stater kit from Facebook.

"Hello World"

Please create a "hello-world.html" file at the root folder of the starter kit and paste in the following code snippet:

Notice that this snipppet requires JSXTransformer.js which is actually a transform code:

<script type="text/jsx">
/** @jsx React.DOM */
.
.
</script>

Just run that HTML file from your browser and it will return: Hello, world!

What is JSX?

React uses JSX to render a view. JSX stands for JavaScript Syntax Extension, which looks similar to XML. While creating the React component, we have the option to use JSX or to use plain JavaScript. Experts recommends using JSX because it is a concise and familiar syntax for defining tree structures with attributes. In our code snippet, did you notice the /* @jsx React.DOM / at the top of our script? This is important because it tells React that we are using JSX and that this markup needs to be transformed, so you need to include it when using JSX syntax.

What are components?

React’s basic building blocks are called components. We can use React's createClass method to create custom component classes. Lets try above hello world example with Component:

mixins
– An array of objects, used to extend the current component’s functionality.

To learn more, check out the tutorial hosted on React's official site.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/it-s-time-to-reacthttps://www.built.io/blog/it-s-time-to-reactWed, 25 Feb 2015 00:00:00 GMTLast week, four teams of young entrepreneurs entered built.io’s San Francisco offices, but only two left with their hats still in the ring to win the University Mobile Challenge at the upcoming grand finale hosted at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

The Event

This is built.io’s second annual sponsorship of the University Mobile Challenge, an international competition organized by the Applied Innovation Institute. The competition is designed to provide students with an opportunity to prepare for, experience, and feel the power of real-world competition and allow them to pursue their entrepreneurial dreams.

The semi-final event challenged four of UC Berkeley’s top mobile development teams to pitch their mobile innovation application and ideas to a panel of expert judges.

Xpeseum

Xpeseum is a mobile application that aims to bring an immersive augmented reality experience to give a unique perspective to museum goers. Coupled with the headset, Xpeseum will guide users to view the exhibitions in your museum in situ with 3D themed imaging and application.

NextBite

NextBite lets you find the best food near you. Simply search for a dish you want, or a restaurant you’ve chosen and browse through detailed images of those specific dishes. Read reviews that are tailored specifically to those dishes and find your next perfect meal, without the hassle.

Fickle

An average person makes thousands of decisions a day. Some of these are insignificant while others are life-changing. Making all these decisions is very draining - don't you wish there's a convenient way to get quick and sensible opinion from friends? Fickle makes decisions easier by connecting you to your friends in a fun environment with fast responses; the perfect environment to engage in whenever you are torn between choices.

The Winners

TouchFreight and Fickle won and are moving on to continue competing in the University Mobile Challenge at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The judges chose TouchFreight due to their strong business plan, existing enterprise customer base, and the demonstrable need in their target market. Fickle won due to their easy to use, addictive interface, and their use of a built-in viral element, the Fickle Bubble of the week; similar to a trending topic. All four teams showed incredible determination and entrepreneurship, but only two will advance to the next round of competition.

We’re excited to meet all of the University Mobile Challenge finalists in Barcelona at the Mobile World Congress.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/uc-berkeley-s-university-mobile-challenge-semi-finals-with-built-iohttps://www.built.io/blog/uc-berkeley-s-university-mobile-challenge-semi-finals-with-built-ioThu, 19 Feb 2015 00:00:00 GMTI always knew I would make an awesome Office Manager. I know this type of work isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but it entails all the things I love doing...and let’s not even get started on my love of stationery supplies!

Enter getting hired by an awesome tech company in the Bay Area.

They were in need of an Office Manager, and I was in need of being an Office Manager...how convenient! This was going to be a pairing of epic proportions!

When you are awesome and (more importantly) competent, you start getting more and more things to work on, but sadly you don’t magically get more hours in the day to complete them. In order to up my Office Manager game, I needed to learn a bunch of time saving shortcuts, so I could spend more time focusing on the important stuff.

So without further ado, here is my list of the Top 7 Apps & Websites that help me achieve that time saving goal.

Alfred - This is a conversation that happened when I first started at the office:

“Use this app, it will make your life so much easier” - Gal said.

“You are crazy, and this is confusing!” - I replied.

Oh how little I knew. I installed Alfred, and then sadly didn’t use it for months. Then I saw Gal, Sr. Product Manager at built.io, do something on his computer, and I asked how he did that…”With Alfred." And then the light went on, and my life changed forever.

I then took the time to check out all the features and realized that yes, he was right. This app is amazing!! How did I survive without it previously? How do other people live without it? Who are the magical people that created this amazing app, I want to throw rose petals at them! (I actually looked them up while writing this blog post, and they are my heroes now. Vero Pepperrell is Canadian by the way...I too am Canadian, which makes us both pretty awesome!)

Since starting to use Alfred on a daily basis, I almost forget what it’s like to look up a website, since one word custom web searches makes life so much easier.

There is a feature to keep your copied items on the clipboard for up to 3 months (I do it for 7 days). I didn’t even know I needed this feature in my life...but I do! You never have to go back and copy something again, if you accidentally cmd+c (ctrl+c) when you haven’t pasted yet. You’ve done this before, don’t lie.

Also, I need to talk about snippets...snippets are my favourite thing ever!

Do you constantly type the same thing over and over again? (Office address, phone number for example) Well snippets will fill your life with magic and love (and lots of extra time.)

Alfred Shortcut for Clipboard > Snippets > Enter...Boom, done! I’m always trying to figure out what else I can use as a snippet. I have entire emails that I send out a lot, saved as a snippet!

Here’s a random one that I’ll admit to having set up, just because I can → ♪♫

Yes...I have the music note ASCII set up as a snippet.

There are a lot of other cool features that Alfred has, like being able to quickly search for a file on your computer, or defining words from the dictionary, and don’t even get me started on how awesome workflows are!

(So I could likely do a blog post *just* on all the things I love about Alfred...but instead, let’s move along shall we…)

1Password - Before starting as Office Manager, I only needed a few passwords, banking, email, Facebook mostly. Suddenly I needed to know hundreds of passwords! Hundreds!!! 1Password came along to save my life! It can save username/passwords for every single site you use, and also has options to save credit card information, bank accounts, and so much more. Not only does it save all the passwords I need, it also generates passwords for me. Who has time to come up with highly secure passwords all the time, not me.

Now where does this app save me time? It doesn’t just save and generate passwords for me, it autofills username/passwords for everything!! This is the BEST feature. Even the usernames and passwords that I have memorized, I still use the autofill feature. One quick short cut and it’s entered and logging in for me. The odd times that I do have to type out a username and password, I feel like a savage!

As long as you don’t forget your 1Password (the password used to unlock your password vault) you are golden, you’ll never need to memorize another password ever again. You’re welcome!

Caffeine - Starting to work at an office, and having a computer filled with confidential information, suddenly I had to password protect my laptop. And with password protecting your laptop, comes the fact that you need to enter your password every time that it goes to sleep.

I’m in lots of meetings in which I need to take notes, but since I’m not constantly typing, I was putting my password in 10+ times per meeting to wake up my laptop to type again. Yes yes, #FirstWorldProblems, but this app allows you to keep your computer awake with a quick click of a button. No need to go through system preference to change settings all the time.

Saving time entering a password a bunch of times during a meeting might not sound like much, but I’ve saved loads of time not having to put my password in over and over again during meetings since installing this app.

SizeUp - Despite the fact that I have two monitors at work, sometimes I’m working between so many windows that it just becomes ridiculous clicking between them all. SizeUp makes it a breeze to resize windows to fit the screen perfectly. So instead of clicking constantly between weirdly sized windows, SizeUp makes them fit the screen so you can easily see everything in your windows. Easily set up 2 windows to fit the screen, or even up to 4. You can even change the percentage of screen space the resized windows take. It’s default is 50/50, but you can change it, to say 70/30 if one of you windows needs to be the alpha window.

Yes yes yes, you could manually resize the windows yourself, but really, no one has time for that.

Google Shopping Express (GSE) - Most of the stores that I order from are within walking distance of the office, and when I first started and wasn’t nearly as busy, taking some time to go for a walk and go shopping to grab stuff for the office was nice, but times change, people (me) get busier, and that just isn’t an option anymore. GSE has completely changed how I shop for the office. Out of almond milk for coffee, need more garbage bags, want more vitaminwater...ordered and delivered the next day (sometime same day) during a delivery window picked by me, without having to leave my office chair. Perfect!

(I even have an Alfred shortcut to bring up GSE...I save ALL THE TIME!)

Amazon Prime - This one saves time and money. Free 2 Day Shipping on pretty much anything I need to order for the office? Yes please!! Working with a small team, means that I work as the Procurement “Team” as well. If someone needs a keyboard, or office supplies, or cables, or toner for the copier, or more paper for the printer...I can easily order and have it in the office within two days, because 5-7 days is just way too long sometimes. It’s great. Just a note, there are a number of other awesome options that come along with an Amazon Prime account, but it’s the Free 2 Day Shipping that we use it for in the office.

TaskRabbit - This one falls under the “I can’t do everything myself” heading. Do I want to put together the new bookshelves for the office? Yes, actually that would be awesome, I love putting stuff together! But do I have the time to take a few hours out of my day to put them together? Sure don’t. Hello TaskRabbit! This website sets you up with people in your area, who are willing to do your errands/cleaning/home repairs for a fee. I’ve used this service for such things as putting together office furniture, and hanging up artwork in the office. It’s awesome. Takes just a few minutes to set it up, takes a couple more minutes to explain what needs to be done when they show up, and I’m able to continue working while other stuff is getting done in the office.

So there you have it, my Top 7 Time Saving Things Of Magical Awesomeness (™ pending)

Do you have any other time saving apps or websites that you use? I’d love to hear about them! Leave ideas in the comments.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/7-awesome-time-saving-apps-serviceshttps://www.built.io/blog/7-awesome-time-saving-apps-servicesThu, 12 Feb 2015 00:00:00 GMTWith the built.io and raw engineering offices located in both the United States and India, our teams are comprised of global citizens. While we work hard to bring innovative enterprise applications to businesses all over the world, we think it’s equally as important to give back to the local communities we have the privilege of being a part of. We are constantly looking for ways to tackle problems on a global and local scale, using technology to find innovative solutions to tough challenges.

This past year, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was elected and challenged India to clean up. The built.io team heard the call and has held days of service dedicated to clearing – one small area of trash at a time. Through dedicating time and effort to this cause, we noticed that there is more that could be done, and in order to make a significant impact we needed to think bigger.

We asked ourselves, “What skills do we have to contribute, how could we apply them and, as an enterprise software company, how could we help India clean up?” The answer came to us quickly: an app to inspire each and every citizen of India and the surrounding global community to clean up, make an impact, and share their stories.

Using the mobile app, a volunteer can record photos and geolocation of the cleanup site before and after the site is cleaned. These photos can then also be directly posted to Twitter and Facebook via seamless social integration. The user is encouraged to nominate other people to clean up a site via text message so that they can also join the Clean India mission. A user can also post a challenge in the app by publishing a photo and location of a site that needs cleaning.

With this mobile app we want to contribute to the spirit of cleaning up around you by using innovation and technology to engage the local citizen, your neighborhood, your country – and fostering a nationwide (and maybe one day, global) movement.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/swachh-bharat-abhiyan-clean-up-india-built-io-stylehttps://www.built.io/blog/swachh-bharat-abhiyan-clean-up-india-built-io-styleTue, 03 Feb 2015 00:00:00 GMTAt raw engineering we’ve always been big proponents of investing in the developers of tomorrow. We joined Viva College, just down the road from our Mumbai office and taught a course on cloud computing, auto-scaling technology, and software testing.

What a great way to start off the new year!

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/building-for-the-cloud-with-viva-collegehttps://www.built.io/blog/building-for-the-cloud-with-viva-collegeTue, 20 Jan 2015 00:00:00 GMT2015 is here and we want to take some time to thank you for what was an incredible year. 2014 was a year of growth and of powering up. There were also a lot of “firsts”, like launching the first mobile-optimized CMS for enterprise, and unveiling the first API Orchestration Engine for the Internet of APIs. Here’s a short video with some highlights of this past year:

The Internet of APIs

You thought mobile was big? The Internet of APIs will be 100x bigger! Internet of Things has been a hot topic throughout 2014 and in 2015, IoT will go mainstream. Companies will participate in IoT via the Internet of APIs, which expresses the idea that for enterprises, IoT’s success centers on the value a company can extract once things are connected. In order to connect and extract value, you need APIs, which become the fundamental building block for IoT. Once you connect and integrate these APIs, enterprises can streamline and automate operations to lower costs and to do things that weren’t possible before. This is the role of built.io Flow, an API orchestration engine that will allow every sensor, every device, every system and every service to interact in a way that creates business value. We’re excited to annouce that we will soon open the beta to the public, so you too can start participating in the Internet of APIs.

MBaaS Breakthrough in 2015

Using an MBaaS is becoming the default way to build mobile and web applications in the enterprise. The MBaaS offerings that will thrive in 2015 will be those that can demonstrate traction in the enterprise, compete with general-purpose platforms (by offering PaaS-like services) and future-proof their technology to power IoT use cases. Watch for built.io MBaaS to lead the pack!

There’s a lot in store for 2015, and we can’t wait to get started and make 2015 the year to #breakthrough.

built.io Flow

Welcome to a new era of connectedness. Where every sensor, every device, every system and every service interacts in a way that creates business value. built.io Flow will allow users to manage data orchestration for the Internet of APIs.

Early Access Program

Be first in line when we unveil the the award-winning platform of the future that allows businesses to take advantage of boundless opportunity enabled by the Internet of APIs (IoA). Sign up now for early access to the developer tools that orchestrate sophisticated IoA workflows never before possible and get a head start on monetizing your own revolutionary IoA use cases.

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/early-access-to-built-io-flow-and-the-enablement-of-the-internet-of-apishttps://www.built.io/blog/early-access-to-built-io-flow-and-the-enablement-of-the-internet-of-apisWed, 17 Dec 2014 00:00:00 GMTBatteries have hit a plateau. And, it's holding back our entire industry. For most of us it’s hard to remember that a long time ago it was normal to charge your phone every few days. With smartphones that's changed.

Today, it’s fairly common to carry an external battery pack and a charging cord for your phone. If you’re attached to your device, part of your bedtime routine likely includes charging your external battery pack too. Everyone is investing in improving battery storage capacity. I’ve been waiting anxiously for my Battery Box which should let me double my MacBook Air’s battery life. Even when no hardware officially changed between the iPhone 5 and the iPhone 5C, Apple still managed to increase the battery size and improve battery life in the iPhone 5C.

The Apple Watch

With the Apple Watch, battery life is at an even a higher premium. Apple has intentionally been unclear about the battery life because they’re still improving it. With most Apple OS releases, they don’t optimize battery life until the dot-1 release.

The Apple Watch battery life will never reach a level I’m happy with in the first model, so just working isn’t good enough. Apple has factored battery life into every decision for the software. Look no further than the recommended color scheme: black background blends seamlessly with the device bezel and maintains the illusion of there being no screen edges. Avoid bright background colors in your interface to preserve battery.

There are very strict controls over what an app can do on the Apple Watch when active and inactive. Just like when the iPhone first launched without multitasking, and initially you couldn’t do things as simple as play music in the background if it wasn’t from the iPod app, the Apple Watch blocks most background functions.

Glances and notifications are the two primary ways to share information with the user. They are designed to be easy to consume and display static content. The Apple Watch won’t even let you render animations live on your phone to transmit over Bluetooth.

The sole data connection between your Apple Watch and the internet is through your phone and its apps. I would love to have a WiFi connection on my watch or GPS so that it could function without my phone, but that just isn’t energy efficient. While I wouldn’t want my Apple Watch to have its own data connection, it would be wonderful to leave my phone on my desk and stay connected throughout my home, at work, and at the gym. Wouldn’t it be cool if all the approved WiFi networks on your iPhone automatically worked for your Apple Watch too?

I fully expect this to improve over the next few year. We’ll see major improvements in the second version of the Apple Watch’s OS (likely releasing in the summer) and with future hardware updates. But, don’t hold your breath for Wifi or GPS anytime soon, I don’t expect this until at least 2018 when the chips are small enough and the battery life is there to support it.

Internet of Things and a Look to the Future

This same limitation plagues the world of the Internet of things (IoT). The only IoT devices with a constant data connection are connected directly to power. Devices like Nest, Hue, and Smart TVs are always plugged in. Popular battery powered devices including Fitbit, Withings, and drones all connect infrequently or on demand. Most people don’t realize it, but your Fitbit only reports activity every fifteen minutes.

Even early IoT devices such as speakers, where weight was never a primary concern only lasted for a few hours. This is one of the major roadblocks to creating a connected home. If you aren’t building from scratch or remodeling your home, you’ll have wires everywhere.

Only when we solve the battery life plateau, we’ll finally have drones that can fly for hours, maybe even days, and the connected home will become a reality. In my mind, battery life is crucial to boosting the adoption of an Internet of Things that can be truly wirelessly connected and bring everyday value to the masses.

Cucumber is a testing framework which supports behavior driven development. It’s used to write test cases that are easily readable. The test cases are written in a feature file, and Cucumber executes the test on an Android device or an emulator.

In this post, we will cover how to automate Android applications using Cucumber.

Automating your Android App Using Cucumber

Java installation – Install the latest version of JDK on your machine.

Ruby installation – Install the latest version of Ruby on your machine.

Setting up Android emulator – Install android-sdk to set up the emulator.

Install the required gems:

Run the following command to install the gem calabash-android on your system:

<code> gem install calabash-android</code>

Run the following command to install gem Cucumber, which will install the Cucumber framework:

Set up the Android emulator and verify it. Start the Android emulator and in the command prompt field, type adb devices. This will list the Android emulator in the command prompt field.

Install the application on a mobile device.

Paste the application apk file in the platform-tools directory.

Type the following command in the command prompt field to install the application on emulator:

<code> adb -s emulator-5554 install myapp.apk</code>

Start the Android automation process:

Create a new directory from the command prompt field.

<code> md mydir</code>

By executing the following commands in command prompt field, you will generate the folder structure which will contain the feature file, step_definitions and the support directory:

<code> calabash-android gen</code>

Sign the apk file by executing the following command in the command prompt field. Enter a valid keystore location, password and alias after entering the following into the command field:

<code> calabash-android setup</code>

Next, execute the following commands in the command prompt field:

<code> calabash-android built myapp.apk</code>

Now, write your code in the feature file:

Feature: Sign-in page

Scenario: Enter valid credentials and go to dashboard

Given I am on "Sign in" with Google page

When I enter valid username and password

Then Click sign in button

Now write the following code in the calabash_steps.rb file in the step_definitions folder:

<code> require 'calabash-android/calabash_steps'
Given /^I am on "Sign in" with Google page$/ do
query("* text:'loginscreen' index:0")
end
When /^When I enter valid username and password$/ do
enter_text("webView css:'#Email'", "abc@gmail.com")
enter_text("webView css:'#Passwd'","test123")
end
Then /^Then Click sign in button$/ do
touch("webView css:'#signIn'")
end
</code>

In the command prompt field, navigate to the folder where the feature file is situated, and type the following command to execute the start automation:

<code> calabash-android run myapp.apk</code>

This command will start the app on emulator and will execute the all the steps in feature file. You have successfully automated an Android app with Cucumber.

Like what you read? Join our community to get more technical information, chances to win prizes, and more: built.io/community

]]>https://www.built.io/blog/start-automating-android-apps-using-cucumberhttps://www.built.io/blog/start-automating-android-apps-using-cucumberWed, 03 Dec 2014 00:00:00 GMTBuilding a website for a SaaS (Software as a Service) product is different from building a website for a traditional software product. There’s a few do’s and don'ts that I’ve learned from developing dozens of websites for SaaS and non-SaaS products.

Best Practices

A few things to consider when building sites to support SaaS products:

Marketing Website

It needs to teach the customer about the product, funnel them to sign up and house all marketing campaigns. It’s important for the website to be flexible so you can make changes at any minute, so it’s crucial to use of an approachable, and easy to use CMS, like contentstack.io.

Product Site

Products are driven by engineering teams, on sprint-driven schedules and should not be interdependent with marketing sites, content and funnels. We typically recommend keeping product (or even its web access portal) separate from marketing sites.

Community/Support

It’s important to use best-of-class tools to enable your support team to serve customers successfully and collect valuable insights for engineering.

Documentation/Resources

This can include implementation guides, tutorials, videos, release notes, and more. It’s important to make sure this is fully indexed by search engines and is simple for users to navigate. Depending on product needs, this can either be developed in house or be built with off-the-shelf resource centers.

Lessons Learned

Why separating the marketing site from the product is a good idea

raw engineering was approached by a team who’s engineering team originally build the marketing website as a part of the product. When the engineering team built the marketing website, it never occurred to them how often the marketing team planned on making updates so they built the website following the same policies they set for their product. This crippled the marketing team as a simple marking change required the team to go through the entire product build cycle. They needed to schedule changes weeks in advance. raw engineering worked with the marketing and engineering teams to separate the marketing website from the product and enable the marketing team to work independently. The team also needed to build an instant sign up for trials and automate provisioning of all account tools. The final setup included:

Dynamic marketing website managed through a contentstack.io, a business friendly CMS so the marketing can update messaging and run campaigns daily